Senate has gone a full year without voting on Biden FCC nominee Gigi Sohn
Enlarge / Gigi Sohn testifies during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing examining her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. (credit: Getty Images | Pool)
One year ago today, President Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to the empty spot on the Federal Communications Commission. Sohn, a longtime consumer advocate who worked for the Obama-era FCC, would have given Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel the tiebreaking vote needed to reverse Trump-era deregulation of the broadband industry, restore net neutrality rules, and pursue other rulemakings opposed by the commission's Republicans.
But Sohn is still waiting for the Senate to vote on her nomination. With Senate elections happening in two weeks, It's not clear that a vote on Sohn will ever happen.
"It has been a year since President Biden nominated Gigi Sohn to the FCC, which itself was 10 months into the first term of the Biden administration. It is long past time to vote on Ms. Sohn's nomination and confirm her to the FCC, where she can put her decades of experience to work for American consumers," CEO Chris Lewis of consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge said today. Sohn co-founded Public Knowledge in 2001 and led the group until taking a position as counselor for then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in 2013.