Nelson takes top Dem spot on Commerce Committee

Sen. Bill Nelson will be the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, Democrats announced on Friday.

{mosads}The widely expected move puts the Florida senator in a position to oversee key tech issues over the next two years, including oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission.

At the top of the agenda for the committee in the next two years is a rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which lays out rules for the FCC and its regulations of radio, TV and the Internet. The panel is also likely to weigh in on the FCC’s new rules for net neutrality — the notion that all online traffic should be treated equally — which are set to be issued at some point next year.  

Nelson takes over the panel after the retirement of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who is leaving after three decades in the upper chamber.