FCC senior counsel to step down

Federal Communications Commission senior counsel and legal adviser Amy Levine is stepping down, the agency announced on Wednesday.

Levine is planning to "relocate from the Washington area," according to an FCC statement.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski cited Levine's work on the spectrum incentive auction deal in Congress.

"Amy brought to my office a rare combination of legislative expertise, policy know-how, and consensus-building," Genachowski said in the statement.

Levine, a former aide to Reps. Rick Boucher, D-Va., and John Dingell, D-Mich., oversaw the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and Office of Engineering and Technology. Besides spectrum policy, she was involved in the commission's review of AT&T's merger with T-Mobile, and plans for a nationwide emergency communications network.

Charles Mathias, now in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, will become acting senior counsel and legal adviser.