Policymakers

Senators' year-end to-do list includes key Federal Communications Commission nominations and more funding for broadband and antitrust efforts. All eyes are on the Democrats’ social spending package, which includes money for broadband and antitrust enforcement and gives the Federal Trade Commission a long-sought fining authority. White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese projected confidence that the House would pass the package this week. Even if that happens, it will still need Senate approval, which will likely be pushed to December.

With the Biden administration on the cusp of passing the infrastructure bill with $65 billion in broadband funding, here are a few things we know about where Federal Communications Commission nominee Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] stands on crucial broadband issues:

One way to decrease the importance of nomination fights is to reduce the power of agencies by shifting the locus of legislative decision-making back where it belongs — in Congress. Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution — the document’s very first substantive provision — establishes that “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.” Today, most policy decisions are made not on Capi

The Senate Commerce Committee will consider President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the U.S.

Senate Republicans are planning a strong fight against President Biden's nomination of consumer advocate Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to the Federal Communications Commission. "I will do everything in my power to convince colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject this extreme nominee," said Sen Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Sohn has a longtime career in government policy, having co-founded consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge in 2001.

The Senate is only scheduled to be in three weeks for the rest of 2021, with a recess set to start on December 10. There’s almost no chance that schedule holds at this point, with the Democratic majority facing a to-do list more daunting than a Black Friday sales rush. Congress has to fund the government past December 3, pass a massive defense policy bill, finish out a $1.75 trillion party-line social spending bill and potentially maneuver around a US credit default.

In the era of email, lawmakers may dash off a couple letters a week to other parts of the government. Often, the missives are little more than press releases on congressional letterhead; the occasional smart letter, however, can work as an obscure policy lever by convincing agencies they have political cover to take on more controversial enforcement, interpret statutes more broadly and even dust off powers they've long abandoned, all without Congress taking a single vote.

President Biden’s effort to supercharge the regulatory state is steadily advancing. The latest example is his nomination of progressive partisan Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission. She favors deploying the agency’s regulatory power to shackle broadband providers and silence conservative voices. Sohn founded Public Knowledge that has long sought more government control of the internet and media.

More than 20 tech and civil rights organizations are making a joint push to ensure the Senate quickly confirms both Jessica Rosenworcel as Chair and Gigi Sohn as a Commissioner to the Federal Communications Commission.

"The United States House of Representatives passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a once-in-generation bipartisan infrastructure bill that will create millions of jobs, turn the climate crisis into an opportunity, and put us on a path to win the economic competition for the 21st Century," stated President Biden.