NHMC 'Disapppointed' Biden Didn't Name Latino to FCC Seat
National Hispanic Media Coalition CEO Brenda Castillo expressed dissatisfaction Wednesday over President Joe Biden’s decision to renominate Gigi Sohn as the third FCC Democratic commissioner instead of heeding the Jan. 2 call of that group and others to select “a…
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person of Latino descent” for the vacant seat (see 2301050062). The last person to represent the community on the commission, Gloria Tristani, left in September 2001. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (see 2102110043) and others began pressing Biden in early 2021 to nominate a Latino FCC commissioner. Sohn’s renomination is drawing Senate Commerce Committee GOP calls for the panel to conduct a full new vetting process (see 2301030060). Just 13 of the 99 nominees Biden picked since the beginning of January are part of the Latino community, which “is not an accurate representation of the Latino community, and diminishes the leadership opportunities available to our community for key positions in” the U.S. government, Castillo said. NHMC is particularly “disappointed” by Biden nominating “a non-Latino candidate for the sole open” FCC seat given the Hispanic groups’ Jan. 2 letter, “to which we received no response.” The group stopped short of asking Biden to formally withdraw Sohn’s renomination. The “representation of Latinos at agencies, like the FCC,” is “a necessary component of meaningful progress," Castillo said: “But, progress for some does not equate to progress for all -- especially when some of us are denied a seat at the table.”