President Joe Biden’s nominee for the empty seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), who is supported by a group that claims police are “agents of white supremacy,” is up for a nomination hearing this week after she failed to earn enough votes in the last Congress.
Gigi Sohn, who was first nominated in 2022 to be a commissioner on the FCC, will get a new hearing this week in the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation. Her nomination stalled out in the last Congress but is more likely this time around to earn the votes to proceed to a final vote in the chamber because Democrats have a majority.
The FCC works in tandem with law enforcement in a number of ways, by establishing and enforcing rules that enable law enforcement to conduct surveillance of internet and telephone networks when necessary, and rules for the delivery of emergency alerts over communications networks. The FCC also secures and protects communications networks from national security threats.
Last year, a coalition of advocacy and business groups wrote to the committee leadership to argue that it’s important to have all points of view represented on the FCC as it does its work.
Gigi Sohn testifies during a Senate confirmation hearing for her nomination to serve on the Federal Communications Commission on Feb. 9, 2022. (Pete Marovich / Pool/Getty Images)
“She has regularly worked with organizations representing diverse media interest and across the aisle to ensure all voices are heard both as a consumer advocate and as a government official,” the letter said.
Groups on the letter include 18 Million Rising, which in March 2021 tweeted that “policing has never been an effective response to violence because police are the agents of white supremacy.”
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The group Move On, which also co-signed the letter, once tweeted that “Defunding the police … is a #reproductivejustice issue.”
Georgetown University Law Institute for Technology Law and Policy fellow Gigi Sohn testifies before the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill, March 12, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)
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Another co-signer, Our Revolution, lists as an organization “priority” to defund the police, and tweeted in 2021 that that police departments use surplus safety equipment from the Department of Defense to “brutalize” American communities.
Conversely, top law enforcement groups like the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA) and Fraternal Order of Police are publicly opposing Sohn’s nomination for her connection to anti-police groups. NSA earlier this month wrote to leaders of the Senate Commerce Committee over concerns about Sohn’s statements that they claim “denigrate law enforcement.”
Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, speaks during a House communications and technology subcommittee hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (Andrew Harrer / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ranking Republican on the committee, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., told Fox News Digital in a statement that “from her repeated hostility to conservative speech to her noted anti-police bias, Ms. Sohn has time and time again proven herself to be an extreme partisan. Given the way FCC decisions can impact what we watch, read, and ultimately think, the FCC is a dangerous place for a radical who has suggested the government should censor Americans who hold views contrary to her own.”
“Ms. Sohn will have much to answer for at her hearing this week,” Cruz said.
The commission is currently comprised of two Republican and two Democratic members, which means it can’t green-light any regulatory rules that do not have bipartisan support. Sohn, if confirmed, will be the tiebreak vote.
Fox News Digital’s Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
