President Biden has appointed Jessica Rosenworcel as the FCC Head

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On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden named acting Federal Communications Commissioner Chair Jessica Rosenworcel to officially head the agency. He is carrying her up as the administration’s leader to tackle broadband expansion and net neutrality. President Biden also nominated progressive advocate Gigi Sohn as the 3^rd Democrat for the bench. The FCC’s 2-2 deadlock would end and provide Democrats with a majority to push forward Biden’s telecom agenda after the confirmation from the Senate before December. But it’s unclear if senators plan to move on Rosenworcel and Sohn’s confirmations before the end of the year. The current Democratic commissioners Rosenworcel and Geoffrey Starks have their hands tied when it comes to implementing Biden’s agenda. Biden signed an executive order in July and urged the FCC to restore Obama-era net neutrality rules and to take up other measures to promote broadband competition, including requiring companies to provide transparency into pricing.

Both Rosenworcel and Sohn broadly support the reinstitution of net neutrality. Sohn founded the left-leaning tech non-profit Public Knowledge, previously advised former Chair Tom Wheeler during the initial net neutrality fight. Sohn earlier suggested that the FCC regulate broadband even further under new net neutrality rules, urging the agency to enforce new pricing principles and make it easier for states and localities to build out their own broadband networks to compete with larger providers. Rosenworcel and Sohn have butt heads before on certain broadband and cable policy measures. Rosenworcel cast a tie-breaking vote to shut down an Obama-era attempt to make the cable set-top box marketplace more competitive. However, Sohn was one of the primary backers of this policy initiative. Many legislators and civil society organizations have led letters and campaigns over the last year, supporting both Rosenworcel and Sohn to head the agency.

Fierce Wireless reported in July that Sohn was initially in the running to lead the agency, but her nomination was later pulled after reportedly being met with intense Senate opposition. More than 2 dozen senators penned a letter to Biden in September, calling on him to appoint Rosenworcel as permanent chair. The letter was signed primarily by Democrats, but more progressive senators, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA) were not included. The nomination of Sohn to be commissioner is still a welcome gesture to progressives who have seen significant wins at ancillary agencies like the Federal Trade Commission over the last year. Biden formerly appointed tech antitrust pioneer Lina Khan to lead the FTC and hired Tim Wu as a top economic adviser in the White House. FCC rolled back the rules in 2017 under Chairman Ajit Pai’s leadership.