The Senate Commerce Committee superior Anna Gomez to change into the third Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Fee on Wednesday.
In Might, President Joe Biden nominated Gomez, a profession telecommunications legal professional, to unlock a greater than two-year FCC stalemate that’s prevented the company from voting on main telecom rules like web neutrality. Now, her nomination advances to the ground for a remaining full-Senate vote.
“Ms. Gomez is a devoted public servant with 25 years of expertise within the telecom trade,” Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) mentioned in her opening remarks on Wednesday. “Ms. Gomez has demonstrated she has the expertise and judgment to be extremely efficient on this function as Commissioner.”
“Ms. Gomez has demonstrated she has the expertise and judgment to be extremely efficient on this function as Commissioner.”
Gomez is Biden’s second option to fill out the five-member regulator after his earlier choose, Gigi Sohn, didn’t garner sufficient help to be confirmed. Sohn was nominated in October 2021, however her affirmation was met with an intense opposition marketing campaign spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Republicans. After greater than 16 months, Sohn finally withdrew her identify for affirmation in March.
“I couldn’t have imagined that legions of cable and media trade lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and darkish cash political teams with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year historical past as a shopper advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies,” Sohn mentioned in an announcement on the time.
Throughout his opening remarks Wednesday, Cruz introduced that he wouldn’t vote in help of Gomez’s nomination, citing her pro-net neutrality positions and “earlier on-line posts regarding the usage of authorities energy to police so-called disinformation.” The FCC has no authority to control on-line speech.
Cruz’s criticism of Gomez’s social media historical past mirrors a lot of his considerations over Sohn’s nomination. All through her affirmation course of, Cruz cited tweets from Sohn criticizing the police and Fox Information, claiming that Sohn would use her authority as commissioner to censor conservative broadcasting.
The Senate has but to set a date to vote on Gomez’s affirmation as of publication.
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