Too much going on over at the FCC for me to understand completely. But I do seem to get word of a lot of it, so I’d better start a category for those of you who are interested…
FCC Split Threatens Leader’s Agenda
By Christopher Stern for the Washington Post.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Michael K. Powell’s deregulatory agenda has run
into stiff opposition from his own colleagues that
may force him to postpone a long-awaited vote on
issues critical to the future of the telecommunications
industry.
FCC staffers, under direction from Powell, crafted a
proposal last fall that would have effectively forced
AT&T Corp., WorldCom Inc. and other companies to
abandon their plans to enter the local telephone business
by leasing lines from companies such as Verizon
Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. In addition,
the staff proposal would have rolled back the ability
of fledgling competitors to provide high-speed Internet
service over the local phone network.
But a rival proposal put forward by commissioner
Kevin J. Martin derailed the staff recommendation
after it attracted the support of the agency’s two
Democratic commissioners, Michael J. Copps and
Jonathan S. Adelstein…
Martin’s compromise proposal would give state
regulators the power to write the rules governing
how much of the local telephone network must be
made available to competitors. It would also
require that local telephone companies provide
their rivals with the ability to deliver Internet service
to their customers at speeds equivalent to
1.5 megabits per second — about 10 times as fast
as a dial-up modem.
Powell’s threat to delay the vote is another
indication of the growing influence of Martin,
a former FCC staffer who was appointed commissioner
by President Bush in 2001. Although both Martin
and Powell are Republicans, they are increasingly
viewed as rivals who each have their own vision
for leading the agency…
During the 2000 presidential election, Martin
worked for the Bush legal team that successfully
argued before the Supreme Court in favor of
upholding the election results amid a controversial
vote count in Florida. Martin’s wife, Catherine, is
the spokeswoman for Vice President Cheney.
Powell also has ties to the White House through
his father, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, but
is not viewed as politically savvy as Martin, who
spent the past several months quietly building
bridges with the agency’s two Democrats. The
result is that Martin now controls a three-vote majority
at the FCC that usually belongs to the chairman.

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