A divided Senate Commerce Committee finally voted Thursday (March 3) along party lines to send Gigi Sohn‘s nomination to the FCC to the full Senate for a vote, a big step toward her ultimate confirmation. The vote was 14-14, which means the nominee can get a floor vote, but with no favorable or unfavorable recommendation.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday told lawmakers that it opposes the nomination of longtime net-neutrality supporter Gigi Sohn to the FCC. “Ms. Sohn is one of the leading advocates for policies that amount to regulatory overreach in the broadband market,” Neil Bradley, EVP and chief policy officer at the business organization, said in a letter to leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is slated to vote Thursday on Sohn’s nomination.
The broadcast networks on Feb. 11 signed off on Locast‘s $700,000 settlement of a court ruling that the now-shuttered streaming platform had violated copyright law by streaming TV stations over the internet without permission or payment. That is according to a copy of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn’s written answers to questions from Senate Commerce Committee Democrats following her second confirmation hearing in the committee. Sohn had been a board member of Locast.
More than two months after the Senate delayed a vote on Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the FCC, her name is included on a list of presidential appointments set to be voted on by the House Commerce Committee on Thursday (March 3). While Sohn could yet face another delay, the planned vote suggests Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) thinks she has the votes needed to send the nomination to the full Senate.
Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has set March 3 for a vote by her committee on the nomination of Gigi Sohn for the open Democratic seat on the FCC. Sohn has had two nomination hearings but as yet no vote in the committee on whether to favorably report her to the full Senate for a confirmation vote. (C-SPAN photo)
FCC nominee Gigi Sohn faced a strongly divided Senate Commerce Committee Wednesday at the second hearing on her nomination to the agency‘s open seat as the pushback from Republicans on her nomination continued. Democrats spent their time having her back while Republicans fired away over various issues. Both sides conceded her extensive communications experience and her reputation as a brilliant and effective public interest advocate, but that is where the agreement basically ended.
Exclusives
Preston Padden To Commerce: Gigi Sohn Is Needed Voice On FCC
Says neither net neutrality nor copyright stands should be disqualifying.
President Biden’s FCC nominee Gigi Sohn will face questions from a Senate panel once again on Wednesday amid ongoing delays to her confirmation. Progressive tech advocates are growing increasingly frustrated by the delays, casting blame on the White House and Senate Democratic leadership for stalling and catering to Republicans who they say are raising disingenuous concerns.
The drawn-out confirmation process for FCC nominee Gigi Sohn was further delayed last week by a medical emergency, and the more time that passes, the less likely confirmation seems. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) is in recovery after having a stroke in Albuquerque, putting the Senate Commerce Committee’s efforts to advance Sohn in limbo. While Luján is expected to make a full recovery and be back to work in four to six weeks, in the interim, the Commerce Committee has decided to hold a second nomination hearing for Sohn on Feb. 9, focusing on Sohn’s recusals from any commission items relating to retransmission consent and TV broadcast copyright, as well as her involvement in now-defunct TV streaming service Locast, where Sohn served as a board member. Public interest advocates called the second hearing unusual, and policy experts noted that the lengthier timeline may leave moderate democrats more opportunity to reconsider their support for an embattled nominee.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) has scheduled a second nomination hearing for Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn. The hearing is slated for 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9. Ranking member Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), had suggested another hearing was needed.
A confirmation vote scheduled in the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday for Gigi Sohn’s nomination as FCC commissioner was pulled Tuesday. In addition to the confirmation vote being pulled, a Senate aide also confirmed that a request from Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) for an additional hearing into allegations of conflicts of interest against Sohn has been granted.
Preston Padden, a former top News Corp. executive, has tweeted his unhappiness with the News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal, in the latest twist in the ongoing drama of the Gigi Sohn FCC nomination saga.
Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn has promised that, if confirmed to the commission’s open seat, she will recuse herself from decisions where retransmission consent or TV broadcast copyright are material issues. That came in a letter to acting FCC General Counsel Michelle Ellison Thursday (Jan. 27).
With the asterisked caveat that the items are “subject to change,” a vote on the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the open Democratic seat on the FCC has been set. The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled an executive session for Wednesday, Feb. 2, and Sohn is among 14 nominations slotted to get a vote. Among the other nominees are Alvaro Bedoya for the open Democratic seat on the Federal Trade Commission and four members of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Kathy Im, Thomas Rothman, Elizabeth Sembler and Laura Ross.
The civil rights group says her expertise is needed in the effort to close the digital divide and is urging the Senate Commerce Committee to favorably report the Democrat’s FCC nomination to the full Senate and to work actively for a vote in that body.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, is still looking to hold a confirmation vote for FCC nominee Gigi Sohn sometime soon. Sohn‘s nomination has gotten pushback from Republicans citing her support for Title II-based network neutrality rules and her support of fair-use carveouts from content copyright protections, and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) has said he would put a hold on her nomination before it got to a floor vote.
Gigi Sohn, President Biden’s pick to fill the remaining vacancy on the FCC, continues to have an uncertain fate. Democrats are pushing for a vote on her nomination, while Republicans would rather the Senate Commerce Committee hold another hearing to examine Sohn’s role in a now-closed TV streaming service. The committee’s top Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker (Miss.), wants to put more questions to Sohn about her role as a board member on the nonprofit that operated Locast. The streaming service distributed local TV station signals online until a judge last year ordered it be shut down for violating copyright law. The company paid $32 million to settle claims brought by broadcasters.
The long knives appear to be out for the nomination of Gigi Sohn, the former head of Public Knowledge and one-time counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, to the open Democratic seat on the FCC. That FCC majority will be key to potential reregulation of the broadcast and broadband/cable industries that is expected under a Democratic administration.
Veteran fair-use advocate and former top FCC counselor Gigi Sohn has collected endorsements for the agency‘s open Democratic seat from various groups and legislators. But a single senator can block a full Senate vote on her confirmation and a single senator — Tom Tillis (R-N.C.) — is still signaling that is what he will do if Sohn‘s nomination is favorably reported out of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Add Consumer Technology Association President Gary Shapiro to the list of those strongly endorsing Gigi Sohn for the fifth seat on the FCC. In a blog post as CTA kicked off CES 2022 yesterday, Shapiro called Sohn ”a pragmatic problem solver who understands what it takes to make innovation thrive.“
Three former chiefs of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau — including two former top military officers — have expressed their strong endorsement of Gigi Sohn as the regulator‘s fifth commissioner. Confirmation of Sohn, a Democrat, would tip the balance of power on an FCC that‘s currently politically tied at 2-2.
Preston Padden, the former top Fox and Disney executive and a long-time champion of independent broadcasters, has penned an online op ed supporting Gigi Sohn as the fifth commissioner on the currently politically tied FCC. Padden concedes he and Sohn have disagreed on any number of issues — he is a small government, free market advocate, she a progressive backer of government regulation in service of her view of the public interest. But he says she will be “an important and necessary voice for competition and disruptive new market entrants at the FCC.”
For the entirety of President Biden’s term, the FCC has operated without a Democratic majority, hobbling the party’s ability to carry out its agenda on major issues, including net neutrality and Internet connectivity. Now, delays to FCC nominee Gigi Sohn’s confirmation, the appointment that would break the 2-2 split at the agency, mean the deadlock likely will extend into next year.
In another blow to her prospects, the Fraternal Order of Police has come out in strong opposition to Democratic FCC nominee Gigi Sohn’s nomination to be an FCC commissioner over the issue of encryption and law enforcement access to information.
One America News Network is pulling an about-face after the far-right news network seemed to endorse President Biden’s nomination of Gigi Sohn as an FCC commissioner. She received a surprising endorsement last month when OANN President Charles Herring published a letter supporting her. When asked on Tuesday if OAN supports the nomination, Herring’s father, OAN owner and founder Robert Herring, said: “There’s no way this company would ever support her, and no way I’ll ever let it happen. She shouldn’t be anywhere near the FCC as far as I’m concerned.”
A spokesperson for Sen. Thom Tillis told Next TV late Monday that he will do his best to keep Democratic nominee Gigi Sohn off the FCC. “Senator Tillis is going to do everything he can to stop Gigi Sohn’s confirmation, including putting a hold,” Tillis’s communications director, Adam Webb, said in an email.
FCC pick Gigi Sohn and FTC hopeful Alvaro Bedoya are facing blowback for past slams at targets like Fox News, ICE and former President Donald Trump — posing yet another obstacle to Democrats’ policy agenda.
The tone is generally cordial as the Democratic nominee sticks by her advocacy.
Hyperpartisan Gigi Sohn Doesn’t Belong At The FCC
Matthew Whitaker: Biden’s nominee has suggested regulators use their power to suppress the speech of conservatives.
NAB CEO Gordon Smith: “Although NAB does not currently oppose the nomination of Gigi Sohn, we have serious concerns about her involvement as one of three directors of the illegal streaming service Locast.”
The media entrepreneur says Sohn has worked “nonstop to promote greater competition and more minority ownership in broadcasting. As a commissioner, she would have the tools to improve ownership diversity among FCC licensees.”
President Joe Biden’s pick for a seat on the FCC, Gigi Sohn, will get a Dec. 1 confirmation hearing before the Senate Commerce Committee, as will Biden’s nominee for another key telecommunications post, Alan Davidson, nominated to head the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Opinion: Gigi Sohn’s Confirmation To The FCC Will Undermine Minority Media Growth
Armstrong Williams: “My company, Howard Stirk Holdings, is one of only two African-American commercial television station licensee enterprises in the United States today. I have seen just how hard it is to grow and build HSH, and I do not want an FCC nominee to saddle the industry with unnecessary, harmful regulations.”
If Sohn Fails In FCC Bid, Broadcasters Need One Of Their Own
Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the FCC is on a lot shakier ground than that of Acting Chair Jessica Rosenworcel. If Sohn fails to be confirmed, broadcasters should lobby for a candidate who better understands how the agency can give the industry its best chance to flourish.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans to consider President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the FCC next week but hold off consideration of his choice for a fifth commissioner who has drawn Republican criticism. The committee will hold a hearing on Jessica Rosenworcel’s nomination for a full term as chairwoman of the FCC on Nov. 17, according to a person briefed on the matter. A hearing is expected several weeks later for Gigi Sohn, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the procedure hasn’t been made public.
A Media Censor For The FCC?
Wall Street Journal editorial: “Negotiations over the $4 trillion spending bill are consuming Washington, but President Biden’s effort to supercharge the regulatory state is also steadily advancing. The latest example is his nomination of progressive partisan Gigi Sohn to the FCC. Sohn’s strident partisanship should disqualify her from serving as an officer of an independent agency with so much power to control the public airwaves. There’s also a risk that the president could designate her as chair after she’s confirmed, as he did with the radical Lina Khan on the Federal Trade Commission.”
Republican opposition to FCC nominee Gigi Sohn could let Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema decide whether President Joe Biden secures a Democratic majority at the agency.
