President Biden on Monday will announce he plans to nominate attorney Anna Gomez for a key fifth seat on the Federal Communications Commission, after Democrats had been stymied since 2021 from getting a majority on the five-member telecommunications regulator.
Gomez, a Democratic telecommunications attorney, currently serves as a senior adviser for the State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy leading US preparations for the 2023 World Radio Conference.
Biden also renominated for brand new five-year terms Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks and Republican commissioner Brendan Carr, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Without Senate motion, Starks would want to depart in January and Carr in January 2025.
Biden plans to nominate Anna Gomez (pictured) for a key fifth seat on the Federal Communications Commission.NHCSL
Biden’s first nominee for the open seat, Gigi Sohn, a former FCC official, withdrew in March.Ron Sachs/CNP / SplashNews.com
Since January 2021, the FCC has been deadlocked 2-2, stalling Democrats’ efforts to reinstate landmark net neutrality rules revoked under Republican then-President Donald Trump.
The open web laws seek to bar web service providers from blocking or slowing traffic or offering paid “fast lanes.”
In July 2021, Biden signed an executive order encouraging the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules adopted under then-President Barack Obama in 2015.
Biden’s first nominee for the open seat, Gigi Sohn, a former FCC official, withdrew in March after three hearings. She blamed industry opponents for scuttling her nomination.
Democrats hold a narrow 51-49 majority within the Senate. Gomez could have a better time getting confirmed than Sohn, who faced strong Republican opposition and saw her unsuccessful nomination await a vote for greater than 16 months.
Gomez previously served as deputy administrator of the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration from 2009 to 2013 and served for 12 years in various positions on the FCC.
Democratic commissioner Geoffrey Starks Bloomberg via Getty Images
Republican commissioner Brendan CarrCQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
She also was a government affairs executive at then-Sprint Nextel and a partner at Wiley Rein LLP, a Washington law firm, heading its media and technology group.
One big issue on the FCC stays China.
The FCC has raised mounting concerns about Chinese telecom firms which had won permission to operate in the USA many years ago.
In 2019, the FCC voted to disclaim state-owned Chinese telecom firm China Mobile the suitable to supply US services and later withdrew US authorizations for several other Chinese telecom carriers, including China Telecom.
