WASHINGTON -- The White House on Tuesday nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn to top Federal Communications Commission positions in a late bid to stave off a Republican majority over the regulatory body.
If confirmed, then Rosenworcel, the FCC's acting chairwoman, would become the first woman to lead the agency on a permanent basis. Sohn, a former FCC official, is a net neutrality advocate.
The FCC has been stymied by vacancies during President Joe Biden's tenure, as the White House contends with a public health crisis, a supply chain collapse and a torrent of severe weather disasters.
The president has come under growing pressure in recent weeks to fill the two open spots on the commission. Both nominees must be confirmed by the Senate. If Rosenworcel and Sohn are not confirmed before the end of the year, then Republicans could essentially gain a majority.
The commission is currently deadlocked, with two Democratic and two Republican members. But in a further complication, Rosenworcel's term ends at the end of this year. If she is not confirmed by then, she will have to rotate off the commission while awaiting Senate approval.
Rosenworcel, who had been widely favored to be Biden's pick, faces a tangled policy landscape that influences how Americans learn, work, shop and communicate. As acting chairwoman, Rosenworcel has tackled robocalls and championed efforts to close the "homework gap," including $3.2 billion for emergency broadband benefits to help millions of students who lack access, according to the FCC.
While regulators have long cast internet access as a luxury, the pandemic has crystallized how essential the web is to modern life. The pandemic has illuminated the gulf between those who can seamlessly migrate their lives online and those who must rely on free broadband signals in malls, coffee shops and darkened parking lots. Research has demonstrated that internet access is tethered to jobs and economic growth.
The FCC's most recent broadband progress report found that at least 18 million Americans lack fast, reliable internet access; experts believe the real figure is much higher. The agency has played some role in exacerbating that gap: Microsoft warned in 2019 that a faulty FCC map has made some households lacking internet access "invisible" to regulators.
In a statement Tuesday, Rosenworcel emphasized her commitment to expanding broadband access to Americans.
"It is an honor to work with my colleagues on the Commission and the agency's talented staff to ensure that no matter who you are or where you live, everyone has the connections they need to live, work, and learn in the digital age," she said.
Both nominees would be vital to Democrats' push to revive net neutrality rules, which promote competition in part by barring internet providers from blocking certain content, slowing its delivery or letting clients pay more to have it delivered faster.
It would be the latest sally in a decades-long battle that has been marked by court challenges and has captured national attention, spurring millions of Americans to directly plead with the FCC to preserve its own rules before the agency voted to repeal them under President Donald Trump in 2017.
Now, in a moment that has emphasized how indispensable internet access is for all Americans, Democrats are aiming to resurrect one of their signature tech-policy priorities. In June, Biden signed an executive order promoting competition in the economy, setting the table for the FCC to readopt net neutrality provisions and pursue a "broadband nutrition label" that allows consumers to examine the details associated with their broadband packages, such as data allowances and prices.
Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a colleague of Sohn's who also advocates for net neutrality, said that if confirmed, the nominees will allow the FCC to move forward with initiatives that have been sidelined while the commission was deadlocked.
"Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Gigi Sohn will create an FCC 'dream team' that can implement a progressive telecommunications policy agenda for the coming decades," Schwartzman, senior counselor at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, said in a statement.
Sohn would also be the first openly LGBTQ commissioner in the history of the FCC, which Schwartzman said could help the agency "reflect the often overlooked needs" of the community.
Republicans have historically grated against efforts to regulate broadband like a utility, siding with telecommunications giants including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon that say they believe in the principles of internet openness -- but oppose stiff federal rules to enforce them.
Information for this article was contributed by Elizabeth Williamson of The New York Times.