The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced two of its commissioners are set to depart at the end of the week, leaving three vacant roles in the traditional roster of five at the regulatory agency.
Democrat party representative Geoffrey Starks announced his plan to leave in March and is now set to be joined by Republican party member Nathan Simington.
Simington did not explain the reasons for his departure, but stated in a notice he would advance the cause of limited government, free speech and American innovation during his future endeavours.
At the time of Starks’ announcement, Bloomberg reported he had several public run-ins with FCC chair Brendan Carr, including a spat over a probe into Verizon’s diversity initiatives ahead of a $20 billion deal to buy Frontier Communications.
Notably, the FCC approved the Verizon deal last month.
The two departures leaves the FCC with three commissioner vacancies to fill at a time when it is investigating EchoStar’s compliance around 5G services and the pending approval of a big media deal involving Paramount Global and Skydance Media.
Gavin Wax, a senior adviser to the FCC and chief of staff to Simington, told Bloomberg the departures had been discussed for a while: Starks will likely be replaced by Democrat nominee, paired with a Republican to fill the seat left by Simington.
Chair Carr and Democrat Anna Gomez are the two remaining commissioners.