FCC, FTC Nominees Sent to Senate Floor for Confirmation Votes

A divided U.S. Senate Commerce Committee has voted to send the nominees for the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission to the floor for confirmation votes, Reuters reported Thursday (March 3).

The committee votes on the nominees came down 14-14, which means the full U.S. Senate will now have to hold a ”discharge” vote in addition to a final confirmation vote.

Ben Ray Lujan, a Democratic senator who suffered a stroke earlier in the winter, was also in attendance to provide a key vote. Chris Lewis, the head of advocacy group Public Knowledge, said the votes were vital to getting stalled parts of the technology policy agenda moving with a sense of urgency.

Both the FCC and FTC are split between Republicans and Democrats. The confirmation of Gigi Sohn to the FCC and Alvaro Bedoya, a privacy expert, to the FTC would give Democrats leverage to push initiatives that Republicans may not support.

For instance, Reuters wrote that the FCC has a plan to reinstate the internet neutrality rules taken away under previous President Donald Trump have been locked down in a 2-2 deadlock, and the agency also works on robocallers, assessing telecom mergers’ legality and other things.

Additionally, the FTC recently filed a major antitrust lawsuit against Facebook, along with an investigation into Amazon and its proposed MGM acquisition. The FTC has also been looking into how pharmacy benefit managers affect smaller pharmacies and consumers, though Republicans are in favor of that.

Biden had waited over nine months to designate FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel as the agency’s permanent chair and to nominate Sohn, who has faced opposition over her advocacy of “overly aggressive and combative” regulation in the communications sector.

Related: Saule Omarova, Biden’s Nominee to Regulate Big Banks, Withdraws Bid to Head OCC

Biden’s nominations have faced opposition from Republicans, including Saule Omarova, who withdrew her nomination to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) last December after months of critiques and hand-wringing from political opponents and the finance industry.