PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE | NOVEMBER 30, 2020

Giving Tuesday

Giving Tuesday is tomorrow (December 1) and the Foundation of the ACM is asking you to consider making a gift to build the future of community media – by building better leaders in the coming year.

Your tax-deductible gift to the Foundation’s Emerging Leader Institute will ensure that we can provide low-cost high-quality support for new leaders in community media at next year’s Institute, which is set to take place over four Fridays next October!

So set aside a few moments and take action by making a gift here. 

Thank you!
 

FCC Chair Update

FCC Chair Ajit Pai announced Monday he will be stepping down on January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day. He’ll be following the practice of past Chairs who stepped down with a changing Presidential administration.  

It’s too early for a post-mortem on the Pai FCC – he’ll be around for another 51 days. In the meantime, there’s an open question about whether the Senate will move quickly to try to appoint President Trump’s nominee Nathan Simington in the lame duck session to ensure there’s at least a 2-2 tie between Republican and Democratic interests on the Commission.  

Why is that important?  We’re assuming there will be regular order in Congress in the opening days of the Biden Administration in 2021 – but if there are significant delays in confirmations in the US Senate, then the status quo will reign and any changes brought on by a Biden agenda will be delayed. And that means the Pai FCC will live on as sort of Zombie FCC (Spooky, no?).

We think it’s important that a new Chair be nominated by the incoming President and confirmed by the Senate – Elections matter in a democracy.  The best way to ensure that happens is for the Senate to wait on the current nomination of Simington and confirm both a Democratic and Republican nominee in early 2021. That way both Republicans and Democrats will have an incentive to act regardless of who wins a majority in the Senate next year. 

We’ll be talking about this and other policy developments at this Thursday’s Member Public Policy Call – contact us if you or other folks in your organization wish to be invited to the call! 
 

Mike Wassenaar
President & CEO
The Alliance for Community Media