The White House said President Trump has nominated Geoffrey Starks to the FCC. If confirmed by the Senate, Starks will fill the seat left vacant by Mignon Clyburn, who recently stepped down after eight years with the agency.
Starks is currently an assistant bureau chief at the FCC’s enforcement bureau, where much of his work has involved the administration of rules related to the Universal Service Fund.
A graduate of both Harvard and Yale, Starks has an impressive resume that includes stints at Goldman Sachs, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals and at law firm Williams & Connolly, where Starks says he successfully conducted salary arbitration for a Major League Baseball player. More recently, Starks was senior counsel at the office of the Deputy Attorney General within the U.S. Justice Department, before becoming one of three assistant bureau chiefs (PDF) at the FCC’s enforcement bureau.
Starks is a Democrat, so if he becomes an FCC commissioner, the agency will again be led by two Democrats and three Republicans. That was the make-up of its leadership for the first year of the Trump presidency, until Democrat Mignon Clyburn announced her intention to step down. Now that Clyburn is gone, Jessica Rosenworcel is the lone Democrat on the commission. Rosenworcel has been an avid supporter of net neutrality and of using the Lifeline program to extend broadband to low-income Americans. Starks’ position on these issues is not yet clear.
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