Feder rules McDowell can participate in AT&T-BellSouth merger

The Federal Communications Commission’s general counsel late Friday authorized Republican Commissioner Robert McDowell to participate in the stalled $79 billion merger of AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., an action apt to ignite a political firestorm on Capitol Hill.
FCC General Counsel Samuel Feder’s 8-page memorandum came out prior to responses by Feder to questions on the matter posed by incoming House Commerce Committee chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), the likely chairman of the telecom subcommittee in the 110th Congress.
McDowell was recused in August from participating in the AT&T-BellSouth deal, which would consolidate the two firms’ ownership of Cingular Wireless L.L.C., because of past lobbying for a trade group whose members compete with AT&T and other Bell companies.
Feder’s authorization does not guarantee McDowell will vote. He can abstain as Markey has urged.
Feder said that authorizing McDowell to participate in the merger proceeding does not compel him to do so. However, that appears at odds with government ethics law. The law states an employee authorized to participate in a proceeding “may not thereafter disqualify himself from participation in the matter on the basis of an appearance problem involving the same circumstances that have been considered by the agency designee.”