Biden’s FCC nominee back on schedule

Senators on the Commerce Committee will again get a chance to debate President Biden’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) nominee Gigi Sohn.

Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said the committee will meet next Wednesday, Feb. 9, to consider Sohn’s nomination.

She was initially slated to be discussed at a hearing on Wednesday morning, but was pulled from the schedule on Tuesday after Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s (D-N.M.) office announced the senator was hospitalized after suffering a stroke last week. He is expected to make a full recovery.

His absence put Sohn’s nomination at risk, given previous Republican pushback to Sohn.

The committee also pulled Federal Trade Commission (FTC) nominee Alvaro Bedoya from this week’s hearing, but the committee has not yet announced when Bedoya will be back on the schedule for a vote.

Both the FTC and FCC are split 2-2 along party lines until the Senate confirms the nominees.