Democrats Deflect, Defend White House Handling of Sohn Confirmation Push

Some Senate Democratic backers of FCC nominee Gigi Sohn defended the Biden administration’s handling of her stalled confirmation process (see 2205050050) in interviews this week amid renewed criticism from some communications policy stakeholders. Some Sohn supporters found new cause for concern in the White House’s decision to hold a Monday event highlighting 20 ISPs’ commitment to offer low-income households broadband plans with download speeds of at least 100 Mbps at no more than $30 per month (see 2205090060) given the providers’ opposition to the nominee.

Sohn’s confirmation process remained stalled Wednesday even as the Senate confirmed FTC nominee Alvaro Bedoya 51-50 after his own monthlong delay (see 2205110069). The Revolving Door Project, Fight for the Future and others specifically called for the Senate to move swiftly to approve Sohn after the Bedoya confirmation. Three Democratic senators -- Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia -- remain publicly undecided on whether to back Sohn. All 50 Senate Democrats would need to back the nominee to overcome likely uniform GOP opposition with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker. The chamber will need to hold three votes on Sohn, beginning with one to discharge her from the Senate Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction.

Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., deflected questions on whether the White House has been an enthusiastic cheerleader for Sohn in recent months. “I don’t know what they’ve been doing” on their end to press Senate Democrats to move forward on Sohn, Cantwell told us. “We’ve been waiting” for all 50 Democratic caucus members to be “healthy” enough to be available for floor votes given that multiple senators were recovering from COVID-19 in recent weeks. They all have been available this week, so “we’ll see what happens next” on Sohn, she said. “We want her to be brought up,” but “it’s a fight every day to get votes on all these consumer-oriented people that Republicans are blocking.”

“I was disappointed in how long it took” before President Joe Biden nominated Sohn in October (see 2110260076), but “I think the administration has been strong in their advocacy” for her confirmation, said Communications Subcommittee Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M. “I’m seeing a growing number of folks who are supportive” of the nominee and “I expect that once there’s a vote scheduled” on the floor, “she’ll pass” through despite the recent drama.

“I don’t think it’s a question necessarily of what the White House is doing” to support Sohn as it is “whether or not we have the votes” among Senate Democrats to move her forward, said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. “I’m not ready to draw a causal relationship” between the Biden administration trumpeting ISPs’ voluntary broadband affordability actions and the White House’s perceived level of enthusiasm for the nominee. “The subsidization of broadband services is good public policy and everybody should be excited about it, but I don’t think it’s related to the stalling of Gigi Sohn,” he said.

“I assume” the Biden administration is “leaning on” Democrats who haven’t committed to back Sohn, said Majority Whip John Thune, R-S.D. “I know they’re trying to make a hard run to shore up possible maybes they might have or undecideds, because I know there are a couple who back in their home states have been experiencing expressions of opposition” to Sohn. “It’s an uphill climb” even with White House pressure, said Thune, who’s also Communications ranking member.

The White House is still actively supporting Sohn and engaging senators on her behalf, a Biden administration official told us. The White House didn’t comment. Some lobbyists and officials told us the White House’s influence with the wavering Democrats on Sohn is somewhat limited amid the current electoral landscape and believe that may shift depending on the outcome of the Nov. 8 midterm elections. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board noted earlier this week the potential electoral peril Cortez Masto and Kelly in particular face if they back Sohn (see 2205100044). Other observers said it’s potentially unhelpful for Sohn’s backers to criticize the White House right now.

“I worry about what the White House’s priorities are if they’re holding a press conference cheering on the very companies that are spending all this money to undermine” a majority-Democratic FCC, said Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Legislative Counsel Ernesto Falcon in an interview. “That’s like inviting Chevron to a climate change forum. These are companies that are hostile to your interests, undermining you at every step, and now you’re going to hold a press conference talking about how great they are.” Sohn backers have recently trained their fire on the One Country Project, which recently spent $250,000 on ads opposing the nominee, because of claims the group has ties to the wireless and cable sectors.

Falcon also criticized the Fraternal Order of Police’s opposition to Sohn, which in part focuses on her role as a board member for EFF given that group’s backing of end-to-end encryption and “user-only access,” plus social media posts seen as critical of the police (see 2203300069). “It’s designed to make her out to be something she’s not and then make it scary for Democrats to move forward,” Falcon said. “It’s one thing to argue her actual policy preferences other people may not like, but this really crosses the line into making up stuff. She doesn’t do anything in the police reform space, so to articulate her as someone who’s deeply involved in the camp of defund the police” is “clearly designed to target” Democrats up for re-election, Falcon said.

“The White House has done a good job twisting the arms of” ISPs “to convince them to lower their prices for broadband,” so “now it’s time for” Biden “to twist some arms on Capitol Hill to get” Sohn confirmed, Schools, Health & Libraries Broadband Coalition Executive Director John Windhausen told us. He and National Digital Inclusion Alliance Executive Director Angela Siefer asked Biden Monday to more actively urge the Senate to support Sohn.

“There’s more that the White House can do to support” Sohn, Windhausen said. The Monday broadband affordability announcement was “a great development, but who at the FCC is going to hold the industry’s feet to the fire to make sure that they comply with those commitments?” Senate leaders should view holding votes on Sohn as something that “would help the Democrats in the election because she is such a strong advocate for people” and she would bring a “nonthreatening and populist approach to the FCC that can only be beneficial,” he said.