(Subject to change.)

Speech by FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps
Monday, April 3, 2006, 9:00am - 9:30am

Two weeks ago, the FCC completely deregulated almost all of Verizon’s remaining broadband services. Commissioner Copps strenuously objected, saying this decision, “erases decades of communications policy in a single stroke . . . end users . . . will suffer the consequences.” Copps will address this issue and others threatening our Freedom to Connect.

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Michael J. Copps, Commissioner, FCC

Nominated for a second term November 9, 2005; confirmed December 21, 2005; sworn in January 3, 2006. Sworn in for his first term on May 31, 2001.

Copps served until January 2001 as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was previously Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Basic Industries. Copps came to Washington in 1970, joining the staff of Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) and serving for over a dozen years as Chief of Staff. He has also held positions at a Fortune 500 company and at a major trade association. Before coming to Washington, Copps was a professor of U.S. History at Loyola University of the South. Copps received a B.A. from Wofford College and earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.