Jessica Rosenworcel. Photo: FCC

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will leave the FCC at the end of President Biden’s term, she announced on Thursday. She will depart the FCC on January 20, 2025. She will be succeeded as chair by Brendan Carr, who Trump nominated last week to lead the FCC. 

Rosenworcel highlighted her work to expand broadband access by administering the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) enacted under Biden’s infrastructure law. 

“We accomplished seemingly impossible feats like setting up the largest broadband affordability program in history — which led to us internet, connecting more than 17 million students caught in the homework gap to hotspots and other devices as learning moved online, putting national security and public safety matters with communications front and center before the agency, and launching the first-ever Space Bureau to support United States leadership in the new Space Age,” Rosenworcel commented. 

The Rosenworcel-led FCC was very active in policy important to the satellite industry like forming the Space Bureau to better engage with industry, releasing the first regulatory framework for satellite-to-cell connectivity in the vision of a “single network future,” and adopting the five-year rule for deorbiting satellites. Some decisions were more controversial like removing Starlink funding from the rural broadband program, and issuing the first space debris enforcement action.

Rosenworcel was nominated by former President Barack Obama to the FCC in 2012 and served as acting chair, then permanent chair under President Biden. She was the first woman to lead the agency. 

Her term was set to end at the end of June 2025. Rosenworcel’s predecessor, Ajit Pai, also stepped down with administration change. 

Commissioner Anna Gomez praised Rosenworcel’s work for the agency: “She focused on consumers, especially those that have been historically left behind and those that are in vulnerable situations, on economic priorities such as the space economy and our digital future, and on national security. Her impact will be felt by many.”