Electric Co-op Today

President Obama has reached into the telecommunications field to pick his nominee to head the Rural Utilities Service.

Jonathan Adelstein

Pending Senate confirmation, Jonathan S. Adelstein, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and long-time Capitol Hill staffer, will serve as the 17th administrator of the agency, Obama said March 20.

Adelstein will replace Jim Andrew, a former president of the NRECA board, who served from November 2006 until the conclusion of the Bush administration.

As a member of the FCC since 2002, Adelstein has spoken in favor of efforts to im­prove rural tele­communications and broad­band and has referred to broadband as “the skeleton key” to economic opportunity.

“To ensure that broadband is available and affordable, we must engage in a concerted and coordinated effort to restore our place as the world leader in telecommunications,” he told the Senate Small Business Committee in 2007.

“There also is more Congress can do, outside of the purview of the FCC, such as providing adequate funding for Rural Utilities Service broadband loans and grants, and ensuring RUS properly targets those funds,” he said.

Adelstein worked as an assistant to four Democratic U.S. senators, including then-Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, before joining the FCC in 2002. He was confirmed to a second term in 2004.

“We look forward to working with him in addressing critical issues of capacity, generation and transmission for electric co-ops,” said NRECA CEO Glenn English.

Tags: Energy and Environment, Rural Utilities Service