Mignon Letitia Clyburn (born March 22, 1962) is an American former government official who served as a member of the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) from 2009 to 2018. In December 2017, Clyburn and fellow Democratic commissioner

Jessica Rosenworcel Jessica Rosenworcel (born July 12, 1971) is an American attorney serving as a member and List of chairmen of the Federal Communications Commission, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). She originally served on the FCC from M ...

notably voted against rescinding the FCC's 2015 Open Internet Order, better known as

net neutrality Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...

; the measure passed in a 3-2 party line vote to remove net neutrality protections. In April 2018, Clyburn announced that she would step down from her position as commissioner and served until June 6, 2018. Clyburn is the daughter of

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

Jim Clyburn James Enos Clyburn (born July 21, 1940) is an American politician and retired educator serving as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina. He has served as House Majority Whip since 2019. He is a two-time m ...

. In 2019, Clyburn was hired by

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobile ...

to advise the company on its merger with Sprint.

Early life and education

Mignon Letitia Clyburn was born to

and Emily Clyburn in

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

on March 22, 1962. Her younger sister,

Jennifer Clyburn Reed Jennifer Clyburn Reed is an American businesswoman and retired schoolteacher. She is the federal co-chair of the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission. Reed is a co-owner of the 49 Magnolia investment property company and chief executive office ...

, is a businesswoman who co-chairs the

Southeast Crescent Regional Commission The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC) is one of seven federal regional commissions and authorities authorized by the United States Congress to address instances of major economic distress in certain defined socioeconomic regions. Ori ...

. In 1980, Clyburn graduated from W. J. Keenan High School in

Columbia, South Carolina Columbia is the capital of the U.S. state of South Carolina. With a population of 136,632 at the 2020 census, it is the second-largest city in South Carolina. The city serves as the county seat of Richland County, and a portion of the city ...

. Clyburn received her

bachelor of science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(B.S.) degree in banking, finance, and economics from the University of South Carolina in 1984.Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn
South Carolina Public Service Commission.

Early career

From 1984 to 1998, Clyburn served as publisher, editor, and general manager of the

-based ''The Coastal Times'',James Rosen
Statement of Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn on Her Confirmation for a Second Term as FCC Commissioner
Federal Communications Commission (January 2, 2013). a weekly

African-American newspaper African-American newspapers (also known as the Black press or Black newspapers) are newspaper, news publications in the United States serving African-American communities. Samuel Cornish and John Brown Russwurm started the first African-Americ ...

. From 1998 to 2009, Clyburn was a member of the

South Carolina Public Service Commission The South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC) is a regulatory agency that regulates public utilities in the state of South Carolina, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas, and water & wastewater. In addition, the PSC ...

(PSC), representing

South Carolina's 6th congressional district The 6th congressional district of South Carolina is in central and eastern South Carolina. It includes all of Allendale, Bamberg, Clarendon, Colleton, Hampton, Jasper and Williamsburg counties and parts of Beaufort, Berkeley, Calhoun, C ...

. She was first elected to the post on July 1, 1998, and served as the chair of the Commission from July 2002 to July 2004.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Nomination

Witness the historic moment, as FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch swears in Mignon Clyburn, as 1st Acting Chairwoman of FCC (8786874758)

In April 2009, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Clyburn to a vacant Democratic seat on the

. Clyburn initially was appointed to serve the unexpired term of

Jonathan Adelstein Jonathan Steven Adelstein is an American political appointee and trade association president. He was nominated to posts by Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama, serving as a Commissioner of the Federal Commu ...

, who left the Commission to take up a post in the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

.John Eggerton
Senate Confirms Clyburn to Full FCC Term; Republican FTC commissioner Joshua Wright also confirmed
''

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') is a weekly telecommunications industry trade magazine published by Future US. Previous names included ''Broadcasting-Telecasting'', ''Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising'', and ''Broadcast ...

'' (January 2, 2013). In July 2009, Clyburn was confirmed to a full five-year term; her appointment was unanimously

confirmed In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

. Clyburn began a second five-year term on the FCC in January 2013, having been nominated by Obama and confirmed by the Senate. In May 2013, Obama designated Clyburn as acting chairwoman of the FCC, a position she held until

Tom Wheeler Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was appointed by President Bara ...

was appointed chairman in October 2013. Clyburn's five-year term ended on June 30, 2017, but pursuant to federal law,Her Term Now Up, Clyburn Still Plans To Serve On FCC
''Inside Radio'' (July 5, 2017). Clyburn remained on the Commission until June 6, 2018.

Tenure

On the FCC, Clyburn has led efforts to limit the costs of inmate telephone calls in the United States, which can reach exorbitant rates amounting to up to $54 a call.

Net neutrality

In 2015, Clyburn, alongside fellow Democratic commissioners Wheeler and

, voted to adopt the FCC Open Internet Order, a regulation protecting

net neutrality in the United States In the United States, net neutrality, the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate, has been an issue of contention between network users and access providers since the 1990s. ...

.Sam Gustin
How Mignon Clyburn, the FCC’s Lone Democrat, Is Fighting to Save Net Neutrality
''Motherboard Vice'' (March 22, 2017). In 2017, after

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

became president, Republicans took control of the FCC for the first time in Clyburn's tenure on the commission, and she was for a time the Commission's sole Democratic member. The new Republican-majority Commission under Chairman

Ajit Pai Ajit Varadaraj Pai (; born January 10, 1973) is an American lawyer who served as chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2017 to 2021. He has been a partner at the private-equity firm Searchlight Capital since April 20 ...

sought to reverse FCC initiatives that had occurred under Obama, Clyburn mounted "a vigorous defense of the FCC's pro-consumer policies." After Pai revoked several Obama-era consumer-protection regulations and closed the FCC's inquiry into the telecommunications industry's controversial practice of

zero-rating Zero-rating is the practice of providing Internet access without financial cost under certain conditions, such as by permitting access to only certain websites or by subsidizing the service with advertising or by exempting certain websites from ...

, Clyburn described the moves as an unlawful violation of the "basic principle of

administrative procedure Administrative law is the division of law that governs the activities of executive branch agencies of government. Administrative law concerns executive branch rule making (executive branch rules are generally referred to as "regulations"), adj ...

that actions must be accompanied by reasons for that action."Sam Gustin
Trump's New FCC Chief Just Opened the Floodgates for Zero-Rating
''Vice Motherboard'' (February 3, 2017). FCC Net Neutrality 143576 (cropped)

Clyburn has been a vocal advocate of preserving

. In May 2017, Clyburn dissented from the Commission's issuance of a

notice of proposed rulemaking A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) is a public notice that is issued by law when an independent agency of the US government wishes to add, remove, or change a rule or regulation as part of the rulemaking process. The notice is an important ...

to repeal net neutrality and strongly criticized the proposal. In December 2017, Clyburn (along with fellow Democratic commissioner

) dissented from the FCC's reversal of the 2015 Open Internet Order. The repeal measure, championed by Pai, passed in a 3-2 party line vote. Congressman

Jerry McNerney Gerald Mark McNerney (born June 18, 1951) is an American businessman, politician, and the U.S. representative for , from 2007 until 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party. His district, numbered as the 11th district until 2013, was based ...

had requested to deliver remarks during the hearing, but was denied. Clyburn submitted her statement as part of the record.

Lifeline Program for Low-Income Consumers

Clyburn has also clashed with Pai over the Lifeline Program for Low-Income Consumers, a federal program that has subsidized phone access for low-income Americans since the 1980s. In 2016, Clyburn led an effort to include

broadband access Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...

in the program for the first time, in order to close the

digital divide The digital divide is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide creates a division and inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information Age in ...

. Pai countered this effort the following year, by terminating the participation of nine telecommunications companies in the program, a move that Clyburn strongly criticized.

Post-FCC career

In 2019, Clyburn was hired as an advisor to

to advise on its merger with Sprint. Margaret Harding McGill
T-Mobile pays Democratic former FCC commissioner to advise on Sprint merger
''Politico'' (February 4, 2019). Following Joe Biden's victory in the

2020 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 January: **C ...

, Clyburn was named a member of his transition team.

Personal life and recognition

Clyburn is a past chair of the

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

of Greater Charleston. In 2009 she was designated a

Women's History Month Women's History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. It is celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with ...

Honoree by the

National Women's History Project The National Women's History Alliance (NWHA) is an American non-profit organization dedicated to honoring and preserving women's history. The NWHA was formerly known as the National Women's History Project. Based out of Santa Rosa, California sinc ...

References

External links

Biography of FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn
at the

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clyburn, Mignon 1962 births Living people Members of the Federal Communications Commission South Carolina Democrats University of South Carolina alumni Obama administration personnel Trump administration personnel Clyburn family