Tech and telecommunications nominees remain in limbo

Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission nominees will remain stalled in the Senate for weeks, further jeopardizing progressives’ ambitious technology and telecommunications agendas. Floor votes to confirm FCC nominee Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] and FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya may not happen until at least March 2022 due to GOP opposition and the absence of Sen Ben Ray Luján (D-NM). If Democrats must hold a time-consuming trio of floor votes for each nominee, “then that’s what we’ll do,” said Sen Brian Schatz (D-HI). “Listen, we need functional agencies.” FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel will lead her 13th FCC meeting without a Democratic majority on February 18. The Democratic chair plans to stick to consensus proposals like “promoting telehealth in rural America,” whish is important, but a far cry from progressives’ more contentious ambitions around net neutrality and other hot-button topics.