Nancy J. Victory has the unusual distinction of playing two roles at once in the Bush Administration. As Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, she reports directly to Commerce Secretary Don Evans, and oversees the agency within the Commerce Department that manages the federal government's use of spectrum. At the same time, she serves as Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and reports directly to the President on communications policy matters. In each role, Assistant Secretary Victory has advocated competition, encouraged innovation, and promoted public safety and security.

Since assuming her responsibilities in August 2001, Assistant Secretary Victory has made spectrum management and policy issues a priority. She convened the first ever two-day Spectrum Summit, a comprehensive look at how to improve spectrum management. Under her leadership, NTIA conducted a viability assessment to determine spectrum with potential for use in "third generation" wireless applications. Assistant Secretary Victory has taken policy stances that reduce unnecessary government micromanagement of spectrum in both the near term and longer term; she has called for a full and immediate repeal of spectrum caps, and she has also encouraged the development of a secondary market for spectrum. 

Assistant Secretary Victory has also focused her attention on issues related to the delivery of advanced Internet services or "broadband." She hosted a forum on broadband supply and demand issues and the government's role in promoting the deployment of advanced Internet services. Since then, she has taken the lead in the effort to prevent rights-of-way regulations from becoming an unreasonable impediment to service deployment. 

NTIA also has lead responsibility for many Internet issues, including domain name management. During Administrator Victory's tenure, NTIA has awarded management contracts for the administration of ".us" and ".edu." In September 2002, she granted a one-year extension to the authority of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that calls for more transparency and accountability on ICANN's part. In calendar year 2002, NTIA released a report on Americans' use of the Internet, entitled A Nation Online, which shows that many more Americans are using the Internet and computers at home, at work, school, and other locations for an expanding variety of purposes.

Prior to her appointment to the Department of Commerce, Nancy J. Victory was a partner in the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding, where she focused on legal and regulatory issues faced by communications companies. She received her B.A. from Princeton University and her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.