Policymakers

The Senate Commerce Committee is planning to pull together a wide-ranging confirmation hearing for the week of November 15 to hear from a bevy of President Joe Biden’s telecommunications nominees. The Federal Communications Commission nominees are Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, who’s up for another term, and new commissioner pick Gigi Sohn.

Republicans are lining up against one of President Joe Biden’s long-awaited picks for the Federal Communications Commission — which means the outcome of this White House priority could come down, once again, to Sens Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). At stake are Democrats’ hopes for a majority on the five-member FCC, which has been mired in a 2-2 partisan split for all of Biden’s term. That in turn will determine whether the agency can get to work on progressives’ telecommunications priorities, including a revival of the agency’s Obama-era net neutrality rules.

President Joe Biden is ready to fill some key vacancies at the Federal Communications Commission. The White House has nominated current Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel for permanent chair of the agency and Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to sit as the third Democratic commissioner on the FCC. The nominations are not a surprise in the telecom world according to Blair Levin of New Street Research. Senate confirmations for the picks are still needed.

President Biden has finally made his critical telecommunications appointments to fill out the Federal Communications Commission and the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA). As expected, Biden named Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to serve as full chair and renominated her to fill her expired term. As hoped, he also nominated my former boss and all-around Telecom Boss Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] to be the third FCC Commissioner.

President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to serve in key roles:

President Joe Biden is expected to nominate Jessica Rosenworcel, the acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, to the permanent job, putting her on track to become the first woman to lead the agency. If she is confirmed by the Senate, Rosenworcel would lead an agency whose responsibilities include ensuring that millions of Americans have internet access. President Biden is also expected to nominate progressive net neutrality advocate Gigi Sohn, a former FCC official, to the open Democratic seat on the commission.

Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel wrote a response to US lawmakers' letter regarding the FCC's collection of broadband deployment data. The group of lawmakers wrote to Rosenworcel in July 2021 requesting an update on the FCC's broadband data collection progress.

Sen Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) tore into Facebook, calling the company’s stated attitudes on regulation a sham. “What we are hearing from Facebook is platitudes and bromides," Blumenthal stated. "When it says it wants regulation, at the same time it is fighting that regulation tooth and nail, day and night, with armies of lawyers, millions of dollars in lobbying.

Facebook says it does not take the political winds of Washington (DC) into account when deciding what posts to take down or products to launch. But a trove of internal documents shows that Facebook’s own employees are concerned that the company does just that — and that its DC-based policy office is deeply involved in these calls at a level not previously reported.