FCC Nominees Win Committee Approval

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee approved the nominations of three FCC commissioners and the agency’s Inspector General today. The next stop is a confirmation vote by the full Senate, but opposition voiced by some committee members suggests it will not be clear sailing.

The Federal Communications Commission licenses the use of radio frequencies for non-government users. Every spacecraft needs to communicate back to Earth, so the FCC plays a significant though often underappreciated role in space activities.

Its role has been growing in recent years as the FCC expands its regulatory charter into areas like space debris and in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing or ISAM. Last year FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel led the effort to create a new Space Bureau to handle the influx of license applications for satellite constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper and expansion of commercial space activities in Earth orbit and beyond.

The FCC is supposed to have five Commissioners, three from the President’s party and two from the other party, but has had only four since President Biden took office: Democrats Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks, and Republicans Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington. Biden nominated Gigi Sohn for the open slot in October 2021, but she withdrew in March 2023 when it became clear she could not win confirmation.

Biden nominated Anna Gomez in May. Gomez currently is Deputy Administrator of the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) that assigns frequencies to government spectrum users. She previously worked at the FCC, in the private sector for Sprint Nextel, as staff counsel for the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Communications, and at the law firm Arnold & Porter.

Biden also nominated Starks and Carr for new 5-year terms and Fara Damelin to be FCC Inspector General.

The Commission has been working quite effectively on many issues, including space, despite the 2-2 split, while more politically controversial topics like net neutrality are on hold until Democrats have all three slots filled.

That took a step closer today with the committee approving all the FCC nominations. However, Ranking Member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed strong reservations about Gomez and Starks in his opening statement and several requests to be recorded as “no” on one or more of the nominations were made after the motion to approve was adopted.

Committee chair Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) called Gomez a “dedicated public servant with 25 years of experience” who would be the “first Latina on the Commission in more than 20 years” and who “has the experience and judgment to be highly effective” as a Commissioner.

Cruz disagreed, asserting Gomez does not have “the independence and regulatory humility necessary for confirmation,”  and he is “troubled by her previous online posts concerning the use of government power to police so-called ‘disinformation’.” He criticized Gomez and Starks for their support of net neutrality and Starks for having a record at the FCC “that leaves much to be desired.”

The markup was very brief, taking only about 10 minutes. No other members offered remarks. A recorded vote was not requested.

Cruz moved that all the nominations, including Damelin and a nominee for the National Transportation Safety Board plus a list of Coast Guard promotions, be favorably reported. There were no objections and the motion was agreed to.

Immediately thereafter, however, Cruz and other Republicans asked to be recorded as no on Gomez and/or Starks and two Democrats as no on Carr. It’s not possible to discern from the webcast who was speaking in all instances, but the bottom line is that all the nominations were approved and now can go to the floor for a vote by the full Senate. The requests to be recorded as no are a signal that the rest of the confirmation process will not be easy.