FCC nominee Gigi Sohn will get a third bite at the nomination hearing apple this week. The Senate Commerce Committee has scheduled a full committee hearing Tuesday (February 14) at 10:30 a.m. to consider her renomination to the agency.
It will be the third such hearing for the veteran public interest advocate and former top counselor to then-Federal Communications Commission chair Tom Wheeler. She would be the first openly gay FCC commissioner.
Sohn’s first nomination, which came more than two years ago, got stuck in the Senate Commerce Committee after Republicans opposed it and one or two Democrats had issues as well.
Also: Former Fox Exec Says ISPs Complicit in Sohn Smear Campaign
The FCC has been without a Democratic majority for those two years, meaning it can't take up issues popular with some Democrats, like reinstating network neutrality rules (President Joe Biden supports them) or reregulating broadcasters. It has been the longest such political tie in the agency’s history.
Sohn has plenty of fans, and not just in the public-interest community from which she comes. But she has caught flak for tweets critical of Fox made when she was a private citizen (Sohn has said she regretted some of her word choices). And her support of network neutrality rules and of the Locast TV-station streaming model that angered some broadcasters helped bring her harsh criticism from the News Corp.-owned The Wall Street Journal editorial page and pushback from various conservative groups.
Her support for net neutrality rules has not endeared her to internet service providers, either. ■
