Large Tribal Group's Opposition to Sohn FCC Confirmation Draws Criticism

COLT Chairman Kevin Killer, the Oglala Sioux Tribe's president, went beyond other opponents’ letters criticizing Sohn’s policy stances, also criticizing her treatment of tribal officials while she was an aide to then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler. In meetings while Sohn was at the commission, “she offended many of us with her abrupt and disrespectful approach responding to criticism of Tribal representatives trying to raise concerns in FCC consultations,” Killer wrote Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Her behavior “toward Tribal leaders was unacceptable.”

Sohn’s “FCC Indian Country track record is dismal at best” because the commission under Wheeler “at times neglected to consult with tribes or made program compliance more difficult for tribal communities,” Killer said. “In doing so, they exacerbated the stark digital divide that tribes are still struggling to bridge more than five years later.” Sohn “is a longtime advocate of ‘overbuilding,’ a technical term for when government subsidizes new networks to compete with existing providers,” he said: “While competition is a noble goal, it cannot come at the expense of those who remain unconnected entirely. Instead of building a second, third, or fourth network in a big city, the government should focus on making sure every tribal American has access to their first network.”

Killer suggested there “are numerous highly qualified Native American applicants with strong rural roots and experience” whom President Joe Biden should consider nominating in place of Sohn, including Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D), a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe. Killer suggested three other potential replacements: Amerind Risk General Counsel Geoffrey Blackwell of the Chickasaw Nation; Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians member Chris James, National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development executive director; and Tribal Communications Senior Vice President-Business Development and Strategy Joe Valandra of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe.

Public Knowledge Government Affairs Director Greg Guice and other Sohn supporters criticized COLT’s claims. The letter was clearly “written by people who never met” Sohn, Guice told us, citing his own 2015 interaction with her while he was representing Gila River Telecommunications via Akin Gump. Sohn met with Gila River Telecommunications officials and representatives of other tribal telecom entities at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, he said.

Sohn “spent an entire day” in Gila River “sitting and talking with them about their concerns, about the importance of the work they’re doing on their reservation, and then drove around the reservation to see firsthand exactly the challenges they face in getting broadband to their community,” Guice said: “She then went up just north of there to sit at a conference with tribal entities to learn firsthand” their digital divide concerns. Gila River Telecommunications is one of at least six tribal entities publicly supporting Sohn; others include COLT members the Navajo Nation and Northern Arapaho Tribe.

COLT members opposed to Sohn “are the outlier” and “are being paid for by organizations” like the One Country Project “that are not tribal,” Guice said. It’s a case of “the ISPs throwing their money around to try and block” Sohn’s confirmation. One Country spent $250,000 earlier this year on ads opposing the nominee. “That this is coming in so late in the process demonstrates that they understand that she’s still very viable,” Guice said. Other Sohn supporters questioned COLT’s decision-making process for the lack of unanimity among its members and noted the group’s decision to delay sending the letter earlier this summer. Killer and One Country didn’t comment to us.