Obama Nominates a Republican and a Democrat for FCC Vacancies

President Barack Obama today nominated Jessica Rosenworcel, a Senate aide and Democrat, and Republican lawyer Ajit Pai to serve as members of the Federal Communications Commission, the White House said.

The FCC, which has five members when fully staffed, is operating with four following the resignation in May of Republican Meredith Attwell Baker, who went to work for Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) The term of Democrat Michael Copps has expired, and he can serve until this session of Congress concludes near the end of the year.

Pai, a partner in the litigation department of Jenner & Block LLP, was previously deputy general counsel at the FCC and chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights, the White House said in a news release.

Rosenworcel, the senior communications counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee, worked at the FCC as an aide to Copps from 2003 to 2007, and served earlier in FCC bureaus, the White House said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Shepard at mshepard7@bloomberg.net