By Johna Till Johnson, Network World, 02/13/06

If President Bush has his way, the FCC will soon be dealing off a full deck. Bush recently nominated telecom lobbyist Robert McDowell as the fifth member of the FCC, which has had an opening for most of 2005.

McDowell will do more than fill an empty seat, though. He'll serve as a tiebreaker on a number of critical regulatory issues likely to come before the FCC (and Congress) in upcoming months, ranging from "net neutrality" to E-911, Internet wiretapping and backbone interconnect agreements.