Senate Commerce Confirms Strickling

The Senate Commerce Committee voted unanimously to approve Larry Strickling as head of the National Telecommunications & Information Administration.

That came in an executive session Wednesday afternoon that lasted about five or 10 minutes, said a source. Strickling's full, official title will be assistant secretary- designate telecommunications and information, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.

As head of NTIA, Strickling will oversee billions in broadband rollout grants and the DTV-to-analog converter box coupon program.

Also approved unanimously was Aneesh Chopra as chief technology officer, a new post to advance and coordinate the technology goals of the administration across various disciplines.

Full Senate confirmation for the pair is all but a formality. The Senate Commerce Committee has yet to hold a nomination hearing on FCC chairman designate Julius Genachowski, and won’t until June at the earliest, according to the committee majority.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.