Democrats gear up for another attempt at confirming President Biden's tech nominees

Democrats are gearing up for another attempt at confirming President Joe Biden’s nominees for top posts at the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration after GOP objections stalled them in 2021. The three nominations — Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] for the open FCC seat, Alvaro Bedoya for the open FTC seat and Alan Davidson to head NTIA — technically expired when the December 2021 session ended. Republicans have slowed down consideration of all three of these picks, delaying the inauguration of Democratic majorities at the FCC and FTC and holding back Democrats’ tech and telecom priorities, like more progressive policies on net neutrality and antitrust. Davidson would help clear the way for more than $40 billion in broadband infrastructure investments, and a bipartisan mix of senators appears fine with letting him do so. Bedoya, a longtime privacy advocate who, like Sohn, faces GOP complaints over past partisan tweets, faces bigger procedural hurdles than Davidson and is unlikely to win the same amount of bipartisan support. Sohn has yet to receive a Senate Commerce vote, and it’s not clear she has enough Democratic votes to advance in the face of intense GOP resistance.