Cantwell Eyes Quick Davidson OK; Republicans Want Sohn Redo

“We would want to go through the entire process” again on Sohn in 2022, Wicker said in an interview. He and a top aide noted significant ongoing concerns about the parameters of her FCC ethics agreement, including whether she will recuse herself from some media proceedings because of her involvement with shuttered sports rebroadcaster Locast as a board member for operator Sports Fans Coalition (see 2111290060). Those recusal issues “might be more than enough reason to have another hearing,” the Wicker aide said.

Wicker asked staff last week “to obtain more information from ethics officials at the FCC and within the Biden administration about the scope of work from which [Sohn] would be required to recuse" herself. "This is without merit,” a White House spokesperson emailed. Sohn “has already agreed to very strong ethics protections, and we’re confident she’ll be confirmed.”

“We’ve had conversations with some people” about Sohn’s Locast role, and “I’m sure she’s going to comply with whatever needs to happen there,” Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters Wednesday. Earlier in the week she downplayed the potential for Republicans to seek another confirmation hearing for Sohn in the new year if the chamber can’t move forward on her this year. President Joe Biden would have to renominate Sohn next year since her current nomination will expire at the start of Congress’ 2022 session Jan. 3.

“I’m waiting to see if we aren’t here longer” in December than currently anticipated since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is threatening to keep the chamber in session through this weekend and into next week to move on the backlog of Biden’s nominees, Cantwell said in an interview. “Obviously we would like to get her through” this month depending on what the Senate’s “schedule provides us.”

2022 Hearing?

Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., told us they want an additional hearing on Sohn in the new year.

Biden’s “going to have to resubmit" Sohn in January, so “I assume there’s going to be an interest” in bringing her back before Commerce if that happens, Thune said. “I don’t think there’ll be any desire among committee Republicans" to help "expedite" the confirmation process because they have concerns “about her views if she gets” confirmed. Sohn “left a lot of questions” not fully answered, so an additional hearing would give Commerce members more time to fully vet her, Capito said: “I can’t support her, but there are people in my state who’ve encouraged me to support her.”

“I was hopeful that both [Sohn and Davidson] would get a vote at the same time,” said Communications Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. “I still don’t understand why there was a delay. But nonetheless I’m hopeful there will be a full functioning FCC soon. We need all five commissioners.” Lujan remains “disappointed” Biden didn’t nominate a fifth commissioner and now-confirmed Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel “last spring.” There are "only so many days between now and when we may recess, even if” the Senate remains in session through Dec. 23, Lujan said. “If we’re here through” next week, “then there may be time. Who knows?”

Sen. Jacky Rosen, one of the three Commerce Democrats considered holdouts on Sohn, told reporters she will meet with the nominee Friday about her concerns. “I want to be sure that [Sohn] is going to represent Nevadans, particularly our minority communities and our locally owned stations,” Rosen said. “We’re going to continue to ask the questions and make sure that Nevadans’ best interests are being served,” including on net neutrality matters.

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, another Commerce Democrat considered on the fence, told us Wednesday he'd "already made a decision" on whether he will back Sohn, but wouldn’t divulge it until his office sent out a planned statement. That statement wasn’t available Wednesday afternoon. "I'd just love to tell you right now, because it's not that bad of a thing," Tester said. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is the other undecided committee Democrat. Sohn’s net neutrality views are Sinema's main concern. Sinema’s office didn’t comment.

Markup

Thune and two other Republicans asked to be recorded as no votes on Davidson despite Commerce advancing the nominee by voice -- Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Rick Scott of Florida. The committee also advanced a modified version of the Securing Semiconductor Supply Chains Act (S-3309), Commerce Department chief financial officer nominee Viquar Ahmad and undersecretary of commerce-economic affairs nominee Jed Kolko on voice votes.

Cantwell was optimistic after the markup that the chamber could confirm Davidson as part of a potential end-of-year package cleared by unanimous consent despite some committee Republicans’ opposition to the nominee. “We would definitely like to see that happen,” she told reporters. Republicans “have so many different things tied up for so many different reasons,” but “we’re hoping that they’ll clear the decks on some of these people.”

Cantwell thinks Davidson is “somebody who needs to get about an important task” due to NTIA’s statutory role in distributing $48 billion in connectivity money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). Cantwell noted during the markup she met with Davidson to address some of her concerns about how Commerce would improve broadband affordability given IIJA didn’t do enough on that issue in comparison to its focus on deployments.

“I believe [Davidson] is committing to working with us and the committee on not just the legislation that has been passed so far but on making sure that broadband really does address affordability issues in the future and the need for any future legislation that would help us make those investments,” Cantwell said. “He’s a real talent” and “will be beneficial to” NTIA, Cantwell later told reporters: She was “happy to move” him forward given his willingness to address affordability issues in the future.

Davidson Misgivings

Thune told reporters he doesn’t “anticipate holding” up Davidson’s confirmation on the floor, “but I certainly want to take issue with some of his positions.” Thune said his vote against Davidson was “more than anything else … a message about his” position on “tying” IIJA broadband funding under NTIA’s control “to net neutrality. ... That’s a big mistake.”

Wicker told us he hasn’t “ruled out” backing Cantwell’s bid to confirm Davidson by unanimous consent. Wicker backed Davidson Wednesday. Wicker acknowledged he and Thune have different interpretations of Davidson’s answers to Republicans’ net neutrality questions but called Thune’s interpretation “understandable.” Wicker believes Davidson “is sincere when he says that he intends to abide by the law and the statute as we wrote it,” and the nominee’s response is certainly “up to interpretation.”

Blackburn told us she opposed Davidson because she wants “to make certain that NTIA stays in its lane” and “focuses on spectrum” allocation duties. “I felt that was the better vote for me” to take, she said. Scott also voted against Ahmad and Kolko. He has holds on all Commerce Department nominees until Senate Commerce holds an oversight hearing with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo about the Biden administration’s plans to solve the current supply chain crisis.

Salt Point Strategies’ David Redl and seven other former NTIA administrators urged Senate leaders Wednesday to act on Davidson’s “speedy confirmation.” They cited NTIA’s lead role in distributing IIJA’s connectivity money, which will require “strong leadership.” When "digital technology is so vital to our nation’s economic growth and social well-being, NTIA’s mission to provide trusted advice and expertise on every aspect of the digital economy has never been more critical,” the ex-officials wrote Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Davidson “will come to NTIA with leadership experience in industry and civil society organizations, a deep well of technical expertise, and most importantly a reservoir of trust across the political and ideological spectrum.”

Several tech and telecom entities praised Senate Commerce for advancing Davidson: NATE, NCTA, USTelecom, the Utilities Technology Council and Wireless Infrastructure Association. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also backed Davidson before the markup.