Biden FCC Nominee Opposed By Republicans

FCC Nominee Gig Sohn

Republicans on Tuesday pushed back against President Biden’s nominee for an open seat on the FCC, Gigi Sohn, at her third nomination hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, reports The Hill. 

Sohn has appeared at two prior hearings to fill the long-vacant fifth seat on the FCC, which oversees interstate and international communications and has been deadlocked with just two Democrats and two Republicans as Democrats try to get her confirmed. 

A lawyer who served as a top aide to former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, Sohn has come under fire from senators on the right over her qualifications and alleged conflicts of interest, including comments she made about conservative social media. 

“Ms. Sohn portrays herself as a defender of free speech but has a history of campaigning to censor conservatives. She calls Fox News ‘dangerous to our democracy’ and has urged the FCC to revoke Sinclair’s broadcast licenses,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said. 

“To Ms. Sohn it seems that conservative speech is worse than obscenity,” the senator added.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) latched on to arguments that Sohn leans too far to the left, arguing that a post she’d retweeted characterizing Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh as an “angry white man” would be unacceptable with “the races reversed.”

Republicans also criticized Sohn’s ties to Locast, a now-ceased nonprofit streaming service that settled a suit alleging the service infringed on television networks’ copyrights. Sohn has promised to recuse herself from some issues if confirmed.

Democrats, on the other hand, lauded Sohn’s qualifications, highlighting her decades of experience in the telecommunications space. They also stressed the urgent need to fill the open FCC seat to break the party-line deadlock and take action on matters such as the FCC’s broadband maps. 

Gigi Sohn

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), the chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Media and Broadband, underscored “the dire need to fill the FCC” and knocked attempts to delay Sohn’s confirmation. 

“It’s been 755 days that we don’t have a fully functioning FCC. … With each additional day, more ink is spilled over this nomination. Frankly, we get more deliberate attempts to extend this vacancy for as long as possible,” Luján said. 

Sohn, a counselor at the FCC for three years, ending in 2016, was first nominated by Biden for an open FCC seat in 2021. She has faced stiff opposition from some industry groups and Republican lawmakers who accuse her of being a radical; being a leftist, because she labeled Fox News as a propaganda outlet; and engaging in unethical practices.

Sohn on Tuesday blamed the opposition on a broadband industry that fears competition.

“My industry opponents have hidden behind dark money groups and surrogates because they fear a pragmatic, pro-competition, pro-consumer policymaker who will support policies that will bring more, faster and lower-priced broadband and new voices to your constituents,” Sohn said in her opening statement. “Regulated entities should not choose their regulator.”

If she’s confirmed during this third bout of nominating efforts, Sohn would give Democrats a 3-2 majority in the FCC and likely help the Biden administration advance its telecommunications agenda.