Why Biden’s Broadband Agenda Is at a Do-or-Die Moment – By Marguerite Reardon (CNET) / July 16, 2022
It’s a critical time for Democrats on net neutrality and other broadband issues as Biden’s nominee to break the 2-2 FCC deadlock has been waiting since October for confirmation.
Net neutrality and the rest of US President Joe Biden’s broadband agenda hang in the balance as the president’s nominee for the deadlock-breaking fifth commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission awaits a vote in the US Senate. But the process has stalled for nine months and time is running out.
Gigi Sohn, a longtime public-interest advocate and former FCC adviser, was nominated in October last year to be the third Democrat at the agency. Since then, she’s faced two contentious Senate confirmation hearings in which Republicans grilled her over her social media activity and other issues, like her criticism of Fox News.
With a 50-50 Senate and strong opposition to her nomination from Republicans, every Democrat is needed to get her nomination over the finish line. But with only three weeks left on the Senate calendar before the August recess in an election year, the clock could run out on Sohn’s nomination, leaving the FCC without a functional majority. The agency has already gone more than 500 days with a deadlocked 2-2 split between Republicans and Democrats.
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