Range of Questions, Little Controversy Expected at FCC Nominee Starks' Confirmation Hearing

Starks' meetings with lawmakers, which began last week, continued Tuesday. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., told us he already met with the nominee, and Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said he was to have met with Starks after our deadline Tuesday. Several other committee members, including Senate Communications Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., told us they hadn't met with Starks. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said she was setting up a meeting with Starks, likely for later this week.

Markey had a successful meeting with Starks, saying he indicated to the nominee he would “be supporting him.” Markey said he would likely ask at the hearing about “a whole range of issues,” including privacy, net neutrality and competition. Cantwell predicted “a lot” of issues up for discussion and her focus will likely be “on enforcement issues writ large, how aggressive he will be” given his role as Enforcement Bureau assistant chief. Schatz and other lawmakers told us they were still assessing what they would ask.

The outcome of meetings between an FCC nominee and Senate Commerce members is usually a good indicator of the potential tenor of the confirmation hearing, one communications sector lobbyist said. “These hearings tend to be more about senators expressing their views rather than us finding out about the nominees' positions,” said Cooley's Robert McDowell, a former commissioner: “The advice nominees get is to try not to express an opinion” on particularly thorny issues, especially any matter that may be pending.

“I wouldn't expect much controversy” assuming Starks "has been well coached, but we will know more about him,” McDowell said. “This is a terrific opportunity for [Starks] to tell his story." Starks came to the FCC staff from DOJ, where he was a senior counsel to the deputy attorney general's office. He was previously a trial lawyer at Williams & Connolly, an aide to the Illinois Senate Local Government and Elections Committee and an investment analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Rescission of 2015 FCC net neutrality rules and changes to media ownership rules “will I'm sure come up” during Starks' hearing, as will corporate takeovers, McDowell said: Senate Commerce members are likely to “express their views on specific deals” like T-Mobile buying Sprint (see 180619006), but Starks “would be wise to not render an opinion” given “he hasn't seen the record.” Issues on which there's more consensus, such as spectrum auctions, are also likely to figure into the dialogue, McDowell said.

“I could see [committee members] asking [Starks] about a range of issues” getting substantial attention now, including net neutrality, Sinclair/Tribune and other media ownership issues, said Free Press Policy Director Matt Wood. “On some of them, the partisan battle lines are quite obviously drawn” but “on others, there might be an opportunity to get a more interesting, less partisan conversation.” Communications sector lobbyists noted several potential questions on increasing broadband connectivity, maintaining U.S. leadership on 5G and the privacy implications of the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data breach. Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee Democrats said during a Tuesday hearing they believe Facebook violated its 2011 FTC consent decree because of the Cambridge Analytica breach and other recent incidents (see 1806190077). “On some of those issues, [Starks will] very plausibly be able to say he hasn't been in” a position in EB role to take a political stance but that “he can quite rightly say he'll assess them when he is confirmed,” Wood said.