Katz Named FCC Chief of Staff, Replacing Lazarus
FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski Thursday named senior advisor Zac Katz as his new chief of staff, to serve for what is expected to be the final year or so of his chairmanship. Katz, Genachowski’s aide on wireline issues, had been a key player in the commission’s approval last year of a Universal Service Fund/intercarrier compensation order. Katz was also a top Genachowski aide behind the FCC’s approval in December 2010 of its controversial net neutrality rules, having spent a year working on that issue when he first got to the agency.
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Genachowski tapped Michael Steffen, of the Office of General Counsel, as his new wireline aide. Genachowski also elevated aide Sherrese Smith to chief counsel and gave aide Josh Gottheimer expanded responsibilities with a “focus on directing a new team at the Commission on public-private initiatives” building on his work on the Connect to Compete initiative.
Katz and Wireless Bureau Chief Rick Kaplan had been considered the leading candidates for chief of staff since Eddie Lazarus announced in December he was leaving the commission, but Kaplan elected to stay at the bureau. Genachowski was considered all but certain to name someone already working for the commission because of the clearance issues involved with bringing in an outsider (CD Dec 16 p1). The choice leaves Kaplan in place at the Wireless Bureau at a critical time, as the commission undertakes a second round of orders on USF reform and continues its hunt for spectrum for wireless broadband, as well as the review of the Verizon Wireless/SpectrumCo transaction. FCC officials said Katz was Lazarus’s personal choice as his successor.
"Mr. Katz has led a number of high-priority initiatives at the Commission, including the creation of the Connect America Fund, which brought sweeping reforms to the Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation programs,” the FCC said in a news release. “Mr. Katz has worked with technology companies at a strategy consulting and investment firm in Silicon Valley; developed an expertise on intellectual property, technology and media issues at a leading Los Angeles law firm; and worked in the White House.” He has been at the commission since 2009. The agency announcement does not mention net neutrality, a hot-button issue for Congressional Republicans.