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Spotlight on NTIA: Stacy Cheney, Senior Attorney-Advisor, Office of the Chief Counsel

This post is part of our “Spotlight on NTIA” blog series, which is highlighting the work that NTIA employees are doing to advance NTIA’s mission of promoting broadband adoption, finding spectrum to meet the growing demand for wireless technologies, and ensuring the Internet remains an engine for innovation and economic growth.

Picture of Stacy CheneyStacy Cheney, a senior attorney advisor in the Office of Chief Counsel, started out his career in a private law firm but realized early on that public service and the issues that NTIA deals with in particular were his true calling.

Many here at NTIA might know Cheney as the attorney who sends you those emails asking you to comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. But he plays a much broader role at NTIA, including contributing to cutting-edge and impactful issues. While some of his job deals with general administrative law like Federal Register notices and FOIA requests, he has worked on many other exciting projects including NTIA’s work related to the Internet’s domain name system and digital copyright law for which he earned gold and bronze medal awards from the Commerce Department.

Before coming to NTIA, Cheney worked for the Washington law firm Baker & Miller after two internships and a clerkship for Judge Jerry V. Sullivan of the Sixth Judicial District of Nevada. Cheney landed at NTIA in 2000 when he took a job with the Office of International Affairs. He was very interested in working on a new thing called “domain names,” something that few law firms were involved in yet. In 2001, Cheney wrote the statement of work for the .us country code top level domain and was on the team that managed its procurement. He also was on the team that set up a cooperative agreement with EDUCAUSE to run the .edu generic top-level domain, which is reserved for certain educational institutions.


Cheney has been involved in many other high-profile issues at NTIA. Recently, he was part of the team that worked on the copyright exemption for cell phone unlocking. NTIA submitted a petition on behalf of the Administration to the FCC urging action to ensure cell phone users could use their wireless device on any network.

Cheney says his favorite part of his job is being involved in domain name issues and copyright issues. It has “been very rewarding for me and fulfilling to be able to work on those issues with a team because the effect is a real-world effect in terms of policies and things we recommend,” he says.

Outside of the office, charity work is important to Cheney. He recently served as the founding board chairman of Our Place Waldorf, a community soup kitchen in Charles County, Md., that serves meals to homeless and needy families. He has also been a Boy Scout Leader for 15 years.

Cheney lived in Thailand for two years and is fluent in Thai. He is a big fan of Thai cuisine and enjoys cooking it as well. Cheney and his wife live in Maryland and have five children.