FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to depart agency after Trump inauguration

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel yesterday announced her plans to depart the agency on Jan. 20, the day Donald Trump is scheduled to be inaugurated as president of the United States.

This announcement from Rosenworcel—the first woman confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the FCC—was expected, as FCC chairmen historically have left the agency when a new president takes office or shortly thereafter. Rosenworcel, a Democrat appointee, described serving on the commission as “the honor of a lifetime” and thanked President Joe Biden for appointing her to be chairwoman in 2021.

“I am proud to have served at the FCC alongside some of the hardest-working and dedicated public servants I have ever known,” Rosenworcel said in a prepared statement.

“Together, we accomplished seemingly impossible feats, like setting up the largest broadband-affordability program in history—which led to us connecting more than 23 million households to high-speed internet, connecting more than 17 million students caught in the homework gap to hotspots and other devices as learning moved online, putting national security and public-safety matters with communications front and center before the agency, and launching the first-ever Space Bureau to support United States leadership in the new Space Age.”

Rosenworcel first became an FCC commissioner in May 2012. Then-President Barack Obama nominated Rosenworcel for a second term, but she was not confirmed by the Senate and was required to leave the FCC in January 2017. Trump nominated her again five months later, and Rosenworcel was confirmed by the Senate in August 2017.

Biden named Rosenworcel as the FCC’s acting chairwoman in January 2021 and nominated her as permanent chairwoman in October 2017. Roseworcel was confirmed by the Senate for another FCC term in December 2021.  

Rosenworcel's decision comes less than a week after Trump announced Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr as his appointment to become FCC chairman. Because Carr already is on the commission, he can become chairman without having to endure a new Senate confirmation process.

When Rosenworcel departs the FCC on Jan. 20, the FCC is expected to have a partisan deadlock, with Carr and Nathan Simington serving as Republican appointees to the commission, while Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez would be the Democrat appointees. Republicans are expected to have a 3-2 majority after Trump nominates a new commissioner that is confirmed by the Senate.

Gomez thanked Rosenworcel for her work on the FCC, both as the agency’s first chairwoman and previously as a commissioner.

“She [Rosenworcel] focused on consumers, especially those that have been historically left behind and those that are in vulnerable situations, on economic priorities such as the space economy and our digital future, and on national security,” Gomez said in a prepared statement. “Her impact will be felt by many. 

“I also want to thank her for her support and friendship.  Her commitment to good government and shrewd management of our agency, which is a special place, helped make my transition to Commissioner seamless.”   

Rosenworcel and Gomez also were linked to the establishment of the FirstNet Authority more than a decade ago.

Public-safety advocates have long credited Rosenworcel for her work as senior communications counsel to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation—led then by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.)—as being key to making the FirstNet vision a reality.

After the legislation creating the FirstNet Authority as an independent entity within the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) was enacted in February 2012, Gomez—NTIA’s deputy assistant secretary at the time—helped oversee the FirstNet Authority as its first board was formed.

Both Rosenworcel and Gomez were nominated to their most recent FCC positions by Biden, whom public-safety advocates have cited as the key executive-branch supporter of the FirstNet concept when he was vice president within the Obama administration.