Biden All but Certain to Pick Gomez for FCC Seat; Cantwell Says No White House Tipoff
President Joe Biden is all but certain to nominate former NTIA acting Administrator Anna Gomez to fill the long-vacant fifth FCC seat, but the timing of a formal announcement remained uncertain Thursday despite a Bloomberg report implying it was imminent, congressional officials and communications policy observers told us. Gomez’s confirmation would give the FCC a 3-2 Democratic majority after more than two years of a 2-2 tie. Previous candidate Gigi Sohn asked Biden in March to withdraw her name after her often-contentious Senate confirmation process repeatedly stalled (see 2303070082).
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Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday she had received no word from the White House on a decision to pick Gomez; the Biden administration in October 2021 told her it was nominating Sohn and Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to FCC seats the night before the official announcement (see 2110260076). “They have not given us notice” that a nomination has been finalized, Cantwell said: “I thought when we talked last that something was imminent” (see 2305160089), but “someone has since told me ‘it’s not as imminent as you think.’” A Senate Commerce spokesperson also said the panel hadn’t received word of a quick announcement.
A White House press spokesperson declined comment. Gomez didn’t comment. Communications sector stakeholder groups refrained from publicly talking about Gomez Thursday. Gomez was already the prohibitive favorite to take the seat (see 2305020001) and her standing has increased in recent days, lobbyists said.
“It’s really only a matter of timing” now, though questions linger about how a Gomez nomination would affect the U.S. delegation’s preparations for the upcoming Nov. 20-Dec. 15 World Radiocommunication Conference due to her current State Department appointment to lead the group (see 2305120050), said one telecom lobbyist. Other officials suggested the White House may wait to announce an FCC nominee until after Congress completes work on a yet-to-be-reached deal to raise the U.S. debt limit.
Sohn, a Benton Institute for Broadband & Society senior fellow, is to speak at a June 6 Media and Democracy Project virtual event on “how giant media companies and dark money sabotage the FCC and democracy,” the group said Thursday. The event announcement said Sohn’s confirmation “was sabotaged by an alignment of Big Telecom, Right Wing extremist groups and media oligarchs.” Sohn recently announced she will become the American Association for Public Broadband’s first executive director next month (see 2305030055).