PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE | Novemeber 1, 2021
FCC Update: Call Your Senators Today

 
The Biden Administration finally came forward with two nominees to fill vacancies on the Federal Communications Commission this past week – and they didn’t disappoint.     

Acting Chair, Jessica Rosenworcel, has been nominated to be the permanent Chair of the Commission. She is joined by longtime consumer and media rights advocate Gigi Sohn who has been nominated to be the fifth Commissioner at the agency. Learn more here. 

Both candidates know community media and should be sympathetic ears at the Commission for local communities. For those of you who don’t know Gigi Sohn, she had been a key advisor to FCC Chair, Tom Wheeler, in the Obama Administration and before that, was a staunch consumer advocate with the Media Access Project and Public Knowledge, which she helped found. 

Over 250 community media organizations called on the Administration to make the appointments earlier this summer so the Commission could change destructive policies adopted in the last Commission.   Now the clock is ticking on confirmation of the nominees in the US Senate.  Senate Commerce Chair, Maria Cantwell, (WA) has promised to hold hearings for Rosenworcel and Sohn as soon as possible. If the full Senate doesn’t act on the nominations by the end of the year, the FCC will revert to three commissioners, two of whom are Republicans, because Rosenworcel’s term on the Commission is expiring.  

So it’s worth your time to reach out to your US Senators and let them know that they should support the confirmation of Jessica Rosenworcel and Gigi Sohn to the FCC.  Take ten minutes of your time and call the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak with your Senator’s office.  It’s difficult to see any positive changes happening at the Commission without a full leadership complement.