Senate Commerce Sets Dec. 2 Simington Vote; Blumenthal Has Concerns

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote Dec. 2 on advancing confirmation of FCC nominee Nathan Simington to the full chamber, as expected (see 2011180064). The committee’s meeting, which will also consider Assistant Secretary of Commerce nominee Daniel Huff and NASA Chief Financial Officer nominee Greg Autry, begins at 10 a.m. in 325 Russell. Simington’s responses to senators’ written questions to follow up on his confirmation hearing earlier this month are supposed to be due Dec. 8 (see 2011100070), nearly a week after the scheduled vote. Also Tuesday, Senate Commerce member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., tweeted that Simington “must explain himself immediately” after media reports about emails that indicate he played a far larger role than claimed in shaping NTIA’s petition to the commission seeking a rulemaking on its interpretation of Communications Decency Act Section 230 (see 2007270070). Simington in June sought to pitch Fox News’ Laura Ingraham on pushing the FCC to grant NTIA’s petition. Now-acting NTIA Administrator Adam Candeub described Simington and Carolyn Roddy, both NTIA senior advisers, as being “instrumental in drafting” the petition. President Donald Trump’s administration at one point considered naming Roddy to the FCC seat currently held by Commissioner Mike O’Rielly, before naming Simington (see 2008130056). The emails show Simington was “an active and eager soldier in” Trump’s “attempted assault on the First Amendment” via the bid for FCC intervention on Section 230, Blumenthal said. Simington “was willing to bully the very agency he’s been nominated to join in order to do the electoral bidding of the Republican party on the taxpayer dime.” Blumenthal, who already threatened to place a hold on Simington if Senate Commerce advances his confirmation, wants the nominee to “explain himself" in his responses to follow-up questions. “I certainly hope” Simington “will be more forthcoming in his written responses than he was during” that hearing, Blumenthal said. Simington said during that panel that he played a “minor role” in work on NTIA’s Section 230 petition and wouldn’t commit to recusing himself from the FCC proceeding. Simington, NTIA and the White House didn’t comment now. Concerns about FCC independence amid the nomination “are real and important,” Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon said Monday: The Senate “should not confirm” Simington “without asking some crucial questions about whether and how he will help ensure that the FCC does the public interest job.”