Advocacy Groups Push for FTC and FCC Confirmations

Privacy advocacy groups Free Press Action and Fight for the Future are urging Senate Democrats to quickly confirm Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission and Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission. President Joe Biden renominated both nominees on January 4 after the Senate failed to confirm them in December 2021. Both the FCC and the FTC currently have 2-2 partisan splits, making it difficult for their Democratic chairs to advance controversial items. “There’s no time to waste and so much to get done at the FCC: ensuring the billions being invested in broadband actually reach those who need it most, restoring Net Neutrality and Title II, reckoning with media regulators’ history on race and repairing the damage of the Trump years,” Free Press Action Co-CEO Craig Aaron said. He also said the FTC is poised to take on deceptive and harmful practices of large tech companies like Meta and Google. "Americans are in desperate need of these consumer protection agencies as their dependence on affordable access to the open Internet has grown during the pandemic," said the letter from Fight for the Future. "Gigi Sohn and Alvaro Bedoya are highly qualified nominees who will provide essential votes on nearly every tech and telecom issue that Senate Democrats have promised to deliver on." The Senate Commerce Committee expects to hold a markup to vote on nominees, which may include Sohn and Bedoya, the week of January 24.