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Biden’s net-neutrality strategy looks doomed
There is mounting evidence that Gigi Sohn, President Biden’s nomination to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), may never get Senate approval. That could spell the end of his efforts to reinstate the agency’s net neutrality guidelines trashed by former President Trump.
“All indications suggest that it’s over and [the White House] is just figuring out how to move forward with a different pick,” a former FCC official told S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Without Sohn, a Democrat, Biden’s FCC will remain deadlocked with two Republicans and two Democrats, and therefore won’t have the votes to move forward with net neutrality. That’s noteworthy considering that the US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is forging ahead with funding of up to $65 billion to help disadvantaged Americans buy telecom services and network operators build services in rural areas.
Politically stalled
According to the financial analysts at New Street Research, the Senate’s ongoing inaction on Sohn’s nomination suggests that it “remains a back burner issue for Democratic leadership.”
Biden nominated Sohn to the FCC eight months into his presidency, and despite two rounds of Senate hearings her nomination remains in limbo. Biden’s delays and inaction at the FCC stand in contrast to the Trump administration’s quick efforts to install a Republican chairman, Ajit Pai, and Republican Commissioner Brendan Carr.
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How is the Biden administration responsible for delays and inaction at the FCC if the Senate hasn’t confirmed his pick? Wouldn’t that be on the Senate and the FCC board itself that can’t agree on stuff.