Senate Holds on Gomez, Starks Amplify Pre-Recess Floor Votes Pressure

“Multiple” senators placed holds on Gomez and Starks when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ran a hotline on them and Carr as a package Friday to gauge whether there would be any opposition to confirming them together by UC, a Senate GOP official told us. The hotline cleared on the Democratic side, but Republicans objected because they want a floor vote on Gomez, several communications policy-focused lobbyists told us. Starks’ term technically ended June 30, 2022, and he will have to leave the FCC by Jan. 3 without reapproval. Schumer’s office didn’t comment.

Several of Gomez’s backers said they weren’t surprised she drew GOP holds given nine of Senate Commerce’s 13 Republican members asked the panel to record them as no votes on her last week. Seven Republicans went on record opposing Starks. A hold from even one senator would prevent a nominee from moving by UC. That means Schumer will need to go to the floor on Gomez, beginning with filing cloture to start the clock leading to a set of two floor votes on the nominee.

The holds mean it will be difficult for Schumer to quickly move Carr, Gomez and Starks together as the Biden administration originally intended (see 2305220065) absent a pairing deal, Senate officials and lobbyists told us. Backers of both Gomez and Starks are pointing to expectations that the pair already can likely count on yes votes from 52 senators, including the entire 51-member Democratic caucus, as evidence that Schumer should begin the floor process on them this week. One of the four Commerce Republicans who didn’t object to Gomez in committee, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, has already committed to voting for the nominee on the floor.

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., remained uninterested Thursday afternoon in Republicans’ calls to pair either Gomez or Starks with GOP FTC nominees Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak (see 2307110048). “I’m not sure why everyone’s bringing that up,” she told us. “We’ve just got to get the FCC done” and get it back to a full five-member complement and “then the FTC” can be the priority. “I’m all for more people on the FTC” and getting it back to a full five-member complement, but President Joe Biden sent the Senate the Ferguson and Holyoak nominations paperwork only last week, Cantwell said: Senate Commerce still has to go through much of its portion of the confirmation process, which means a committee vote won’t happen until after the August recess.

Several Senate Republicans spoke favorably of moving quickly on Ferguson and Holyoak in interviews with us, including Commerce member Jerry Moran of Kansas. “I think there needs to be some balance to compensate for what the FTC has been about,” especially since it currently only includes three Democratic members, Moran said: “I hope it’s a confirmation process that can happen quickly. I’m always interested in things working smoothly.” The FTC nominees’ “confirmation is urgent because Republicans are needed to serve as a check on the Democratic majority,” said Senate Judiciary Committee member Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Undecideds

Moran and Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., have joined former lead Commerce Republican Roger Wicker, R-Miss., in saying they remain undecided on Gomez despite not objecting to her during the committee vote. “I wasn’t there” in person for the vote, but “I’m for Starks,” Moran told us: “I’ll decide where I am” on Gomez “by the time she reaches” the floor. Young “has been frustrated with the rushed process thus far but looks forward to meeting with” Gomez “for the first time in the coming weeks, and he will continue to evaluate all of the nominees in advance of any potential floor vote,” a spokesperson said.

Senate Commerce Republicans Deb Fischer of Nebraska and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, who went on record against Gomez at the meeting, told us they haven’t fully ruled out the nominee. Both confirmed their objections to her stemmed from not being able to meet with her before the vote. Commerce ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during the meeting noted that the panel scheduled its June FCC confirmation hearing (see 2306220067) in a way that coincided with the Armed Services Committee’s consideration of its version of the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act (S-2226). Fischer and Sullivan are among those who belong to both Armed Services and Commerce. Both senators support Starks.

“I normally go to all of these confirmation hearings” within Senate Commerce’s jurisdiction, but “there were these giant conflicts” for the FCC panel, Sullivan said. “The vetting matters” as shown during the repeatedly stalled confirmation process for ex-FCC nominee Gigi Sohn (see 2303070082). “My general approach is that if you don’t have a chance as a committee member to do the vetting, then your default position is no until you can get that opportunity,” he said: “I’ll get a meeting” with Gomez and how that conversation goes will determine whether he backs her on the floor. “I can be a very independent vote” who is willing to bucking Republicans’ majority opinion on occasion, he said.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, one of two Commerce Democrats who asked the committee to record them as no votes on Carr, told us last week “it’s possible” she would oppose moving the GOP nominee by UC given her committee vote. Duckworth said she formally objected to Carr last week “specifically because” Commerce’s decision on the FCC nominees was “meant to be a voice vote,” but the majority of committee “Republicans decided to make it contentious” by naming themselves as opposed to Gomez and Starks.

“I think you can clear the hurdle” in the Senate for the FCC nominees via floor votes before the August recess because a group of Republicans that includes Capito, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah “can help get this over the finish line,” said Public Knowledge Government Affairs Director Greg Guice. “There is more than enough time to get these nominations done” before the break even with S-2226 also on Schumer’s agenda. Senate leaders should not delay Gomez’s confirmation because of the Republicans’ FTC pairing proposal, Guice told us: “It is delay for purposes of delay” aimed at holding off the start of a Democratic 3-2 FCC majority for as long as possible.

“We wouldn’t scream about” pairing Starks with the FTC nominees if Republicans were to propose that, but holding off on confirming “the deciding vote to finally give Biden the majority on the FCC that he’s supposed to get by statute” until at least September is “obviously unacceptable,” said Free Press Vice President-Policy Matt Wood. Holding up either Democratic nominee to ensure swift consideration of the FTC Republican candidates is “not necessary because the Democratic majority will bring forward” both Ferguson and Holyoak “in due course without trying to stall for a year or two like the Republicans have” with some FCC confirmations.