Sohn Supporters Criticize Senate Over Stalled Confirmation Process a Year After Nomination

Supporters of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn marked the one-year anniversary Wednesday of her original nomination to the post (see 2110260076) by lambasting Senate officials over her stalled confirmation process. President Joe Biden renominated Sohn in January, but she hasn’t advanced beyond a March 14-14 tied Senate Commerce Committee vote (see 2203030070). Her backers hope the Senate will confirm her during the upcoming lame-duck session (see 2209130065). The Senate “gets an ‘F’ in FCC” because Sohn “has been in limbo for a year now, preventing a deadlocked agency from passing crucial policies that would help people in the United States connect and communicate,” said Free Press Action Internet Campaign Director Heather Franklin. “For a year, Democratic leaders have dithered and delayed” amid “a smear campaign against” the nominee by communications sector opponents. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “has a chance to call this important vote as soon as Congress returns from the upcoming midterm elections,” Franklin said: “He should have the courage to take it.” It’s “long past time to vote on Ms. Sohn’s nomination and confirm her to the FCC, where she can put her decades of experience to work for American consumers,” said Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis. Fight for the Future supporters “should be just as furious with Schumer “and Senate Democrats for the inexcusable delay in confirming Gigi Sohn to the FCC” as they were when the commission rescinded its 2015 net neutrality rules, tweeted Director Evan Greer: “It has been an entire year. Get it done.”