Why We Need a Full-Strength FCC

The Federal Communications Commission is the lead U.S. agency on a number of technically and legally complex issues that increasingly impact economic opportunity, health, education, and civic engagement. Since January 20, 2021, the FCC has been led by four commissioners: Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and Commissioners Brendan Carr, Geoffrey Starks, and Nathan Simington. The Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC, calls for five commissioners. President Joe Biden nominated Gigi B. Sohn to be the fifth commissioner on October 26, 2021. But Sohn, a Distinguished Fellow at the Georgetown Law Institute for Technology Law & Policy and the Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate, still awaits a Senate confirmation vote. Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel has been making the best of the four-commissioner FCC. She has managed to get votes on a number of important items like affordable broadband, national security, network security, spectrum auctions, and responding to climate change. However, there are many important outstanding matters that have remained unresolved. Over the past year, there have been over a dozen items that Chairwoman Rosenworcel has teed up for action by the full FCC, items that languish because the FCC does not have the full complement of experts Congress envisioned.