As House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.) prepares to hand the gavel over to Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a top telecommunications staffer is heading for the private sector.
Howard Waltzman, chief telecommunications counsel to The House Energy & Commerce Committee, is exiting to join law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw as a partner.
Waltzman was the author of the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act, which established the hard date for the DTV transition and outlined the DTV converter box subsidy, though it is up to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to fill in the lines.
He was also instrumental in drafting the video franchise reform legislation that passed the House, though a broader version failed to pass the Senate.
Waltzman is also a former staffer to Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)
