Senate committee approves nominee to break FCC deadlock

The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Anna Gomez to become the third Democratic commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday. 

In May, President Joe Biden nominated Gomez, a career telecommunications attorney, to unlock a more than two-year FCC stalemate that’s prevented the agency from voting on major telecom regulations like net neutrality. Now, her nomination advances to the floor for a final full-Senate vote. 

“Ms. Gomez is a dedicated public servant with 25 years of experience in the telecom industry,” Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said in her opening remarks on Wednesday. “Ms. Gomez has demonstrated she has the experience and judgment to be highly effective in this role as Commissioner.”

Gomez is Biden’s second choice to fill out the five-member regulator after his previous pick, Gigi Sohn, failed to garner enough support to be confirmed. Sohn was nominated in October 2021, but her confirmation was met with an intense opposition campaign spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Republicans. After more than 16 months, Sohn ultimately withdrew her name for confirmation in March.

“I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies,” Sohn said in a statement at the time.

During his opening remarks Wednesday, Cruz announced that he would not vote in support of Gomez’s nomination, citing her pro-net neutrality positions and “previous online posts concerning the use of government power to police so-called disinformation.” The FCC has no authority to regulate online speech. 

Cruz’s criticism of Gomez’s social media history mirrors much of his concerns over Sohn’s nomination. Throughout her confirmation process, Cruz cited tweets from Sohn criticizing the police and Fox News, claiming that Sohn would use her authority as commissioner to censor conservative broadcasting. 

The Senate has yet to set a date to vote on Gomez’s confirmation as of publication.