President Biden's net neutrality strategy looks doomed

There is mounting evidence that Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], President Biden's nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, may never get Senate approval. That could spell the end of his efforts to reinstate the agency's net neutrality guidelines trashed by former President Trump. Without Sohn, Biden's FCC will remain deadlocked with two Republicans and two Democrats, and therefore won't have the votes to move forward with net neutrality. According to the financial analysts at New Street Research, the Senate's ongoing inaction on Sohn's nomination suggests that it "remains a back burner issue for Democratic leadership." That's noteworthy considering that the US Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is forging ahead with funding of up to $65 billion to help disadvantaged Americans buy telecom services and network operators build services in rural areas. Without the FCC's backing, the topic of net neutrality would appear to be pushed down to the states. Already California appears to have passed the final hurdle in its efforts to impose net neutrality there. That potentially paves the way for other states to do the same.