Democratic Majority at the FCC Still Blocked

Nearly two years have come and gone without a fifth commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, the agency tasked to regulate the corporate behemoths that control how Americans gather, receive, and transmit information. Almost a year into President Biden’s first term, the White House nominated Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society], a public-interest advocate who served as a top counselor to Obama FCC chair Tom Wheeler. With significant opposition from the telecom industry, Sohn still awaits Senate confirmation in the twilight of the lame-duck Congress. If the year ends without Sohn being confirmed, the White House will have to renominate her in the next Congress, restarting what’s already been a drawn-out process with little to no precedent. Sohn’s absence means that the Biden administration lacks a working majority at a critical agency, which is deadlocked on many issues between the panel’s two Democrats and two Republicans. It speaks to a broader problem that Democrats have run into during President Biden’s tenure (and frankly, all modern presidencies) to fully staff the sprawling branches of government.