Tech advocates criticize FCC nomination delays

President Joe Biden’s Federal Communications Commission nominee, Gigi Sohn, will face questions from a Senate panel once again on Feb 9 amid ongoing delays to her confirmation. Progressive tech advocates are growing increasingly frustrated by the delays, casting blame on the White House and Senate Democratic leadership for stalling and catering to Republicans who they say are raising disingenuous concerns. Sohn appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee in December for a hearing on her nomination. The committee failed to advance her to a full Senate vote by the end of 2021, with broad backlash against her from Republican members. Biden renominated her at the start of 2022. “Gigi’s [first] hearing went well. No question that she’s a skilled advocate and witness and public servant, all those things rolled into one. I don’t think there’s any danger from her being up there again. It seems to me like [today's hearing is] nothing more than a chance for senators to ask questions that have already been answered or shouldn’t have been raised in the first place,” said Matt Wood, vice president of policy at Free Press. Joshua Stager, deputy director for broadband and competition policy at New America’s Open Technology Institute, said in a statement that the hearing is a “profound waste of the Senate’s limited time, and it sets a dangerous precedent for President Biden’s nominees throughout the government.”