The White House late Monday withdrew Michael O’Rielly’s re-nomination to the FCC.
President Donald Trump originally sent O’Rielly’s nomination to the Senate on March 18, 2020.
In a message to the Senate, the White House gave no reason for O’Rielly’s withdrawal for another five-year term on the Commission. However, Inside Towers recently reported that Senate Armed Services Committee chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK) placed a hold on the nomination because he wants O’Rielly to say he will vote to overturn the Ligado Order.
The FCC recently approved a plan by Ligado to use L-band, the frequency range between 1 to 2 GHz, to build a 5G network. L-band is vital to GPS and opponents — like Inhofe, the Department of Defense and security agencies — maintain that Ligado’s plan would create harmful interference with GPS, hurting both warfighters and commercial ventures in the U.S.
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