In a brief White House memo late this afternoon, President Trump has withdrawn the nomination of Michael O’Reilly to a second five year term as FCC commissioner.
InsideDefense.com reported last week that Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) placed a hold on O’Reilly’s renomination due to failing to publicly commit to vote to overturn the FCC’s decision to approve Ligado Networks’ L-band network. Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had language in the last defense authorization bill preventing the Pentagon from complying with the FCC’s previous approval of Ligado Networks’ planned 5G L-band network until the DOD provided cost estimates associated with potential GPS interference.
The Republican O’Reilly was nominated to the FCC in 2013 by President Obama to complete the term of outgoing commissioner Robert M. McDowell. He was then renominated and reconfirmed by the Senate in 2014. His new term began on July 1, 2019 and was sent to the Senate for reconfirmation in March.