GOP Very Excited To Be Handed An FCC Voting Majority By Joe Biden

from the own-goal dept

Consumer groups have grown all-too-politely annoyed at the Biden administration's failure to pick a third Democratic Commissioner and permanent FCC boss nearly eight months into his term. After the rushed Trump appointment of unqualified Trump ally Nathan Simington to the agency (as part of that dumb and now deceased plan to have the FCC regulate social media), the agency now sits gridlocked at 2-2 commissioners under interim FCC head Jessica Rosenworcel.

While the FCC can still putter along tackling its usual work on spectrum and device management, the gridlock means it can't do much of anything controversial, like reversing Trump-era attacks on basic telecom consumer protections, media consolidation rules, or the FCC's authority to hold telecom giants accountable for much of, well, anything. If you're a telecom giant like AT&T or Comcast, that's the gift that just keeps on giving.

More interesting perhaps is the fact that interim FCC boss Jessica Rosenworcel, whose term expires at the end of the year, hasn't had her term renewed either. That means there's an increasingly real chance the GOP enjoys a 2-1 voting majority at Biden's FCC in the new year:

"Biden’s delay is historic: No previous president has waited this long to name a chair of the five-member body. The closest parallels are Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, who waited until mid-September to name their agency chiefs. But Biden has blown past that deadline, alarming Capitol Hill Democrats who have few legislative days remaining this year for confirming any nominees the president might offer."

By the time a permanent FCC boss is appointed and confirmed, it's likely a full year and a half of policy making time will have been wasted. That's a punch in the face to those who were looking for a Biden FCC to do popular things like restore net neutrality, meaningfully stand up to telecom mono/duopolies, or restore bipartisan media consolidation rules stripped away under Trump. It's also a weird contrast to the Biden administration's treatment of the FTC, which has been aggressively stocked with popular choices among folks looking for meaningful reform.

Politico, with some uncharacteristic nuance and accuracy, correctly does point out there's some hesitation about appointing current interim FCC boss Rosenworcel permanent boss because she's historically been an unreliable vote on major consumer advocacy issues. Like that time she killed an FCC attempt to bring competition to cable boxes because the cable industry (falsely) claimed it would kill copyright:

"Rosenworcel has alienated some Democrats in the past. During the Obama years, she proved a fickle deciding vote on the FCC’s Democratic majority, and progressives blamed her for spiking an attempted overhaul of the cable set-top box marketplace. Democratic Sens. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon even briefly blocked her renomination in late 2016 over their ire."

Regardless, telecom giants and the GOP allies who love them are pleased as punch about the delay. Agency Republicans are quick to downplay the fact that the agency currently can't do anything even remotely controversial (read: all the stuff they don't like) without a functional voting majority:

"Republicans, meanwhile, see the status quo as an unexpected gift. They hope they can keep delaying partisan fights that would probably override their views, touting what they see as a productive bipartisan agenda under Rosenworcel’s 2-2 split."

I've spent months picking the brains of DC folks for a reasonable explanation of the delay, and there really aren't any. Some argue that it's just a matter of staffing and resources (which again, hasn't been a problem elsewhere like the FTC, nor is that historically ever much a problem for the GOP, which rushed to get Simington appointed in under 30 days). Some argue it's because the top picks might be unable to pass a vote in Congress because they're too consumer-centric (a case that you should probably be making to the public, not shying away from in fear).

My sense is the real culprit is two-fold. One, when the telecom industry saw antitrust buster Lina Khan appointed to the FTC and then quickly promoted to agency boss, they began pouring money and resources into trying to ensure the same thing didn't happen at the FCC. I'd also argue that the myopic focus on "big tech" continues to suck most of the policy oxygen out of the room (something also actively encouraged by telecom lobbyists), consistently shifting attention away from media and telecom policy issues that are every bit as important.

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Filed Under: fcc, jessica rosenworcel, joe biden


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  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    icon
    Koby (profile), 15 Oct 2021 @ 1:10pm

    Create Urgency

    Perhaps there is a fundraising or voter turnout benefit to delaying. If a permanent commissioner is confirmed, there may be less of a motivation around election time. On the other hand, if it's a crisis, then they can send out some campaign ads along the lines of "vote for us, and donate, or else republicans will take over!" Of course, it would be a crisis of their own making, but noone is going to pay attention.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That One Guy (profile), 15 Oct 2021 @ 1:26pm

    'I am shocked they did exactly what I wanted them to.'

    It's getting really hard not to see this stonewalling as intentional rather than just a byproduct of something else, attaining the goal of appeasing and pandering to the telecom industry by inaction in order to attain plausible deniability and the ability to just blame the republicans.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 15 Oct 2021 @ 4:03pm

    I see this as if Biden fills the FCC positions then we'd get net net neutrality back which means he can't attack certain websites over moderation anymore.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That Anonymous Coward (profile), 15 Oct 2021 @ 5:42pm

    Something something new guy nearly as bad as the last guy.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      That One Guy (profile), 15 Oct 2021 @ 9:10pm

      Re:

      Well, no, I'll take corrupt incompetence over idiotic malice any day.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 17 Oct 2021 @ 11:24am

        Re: Re:

        I can't picture any American political party that would leave out one of those essential nutrients.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Thad (profile), 17 Oct 2021 @ 11:26am

      Re:

      Something something new guy nearly as bad as the last guy.

      I mean this is pretty bad, but are you seriously suggesting that delaying the nomination of an FCC commissioner is "nearly as bad as" attempting to overthrow the fucking government?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    got_runs? (profile), 18 Oct 2021 @ 7:45am

    Unless Biden's underlings say something, he doesn't know.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    lucidrenegade (profile), 18 Oct 2021 @ 4:35pm

    Despite having accomplished jack shit so far (vaccination rollout aside), Biden is still a better President than Trump. It's just plain sad that Trump set the bar that low.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    wutsinterweb, 18 Oct 2021 @ 6:34pm

    Well, the 800 pound elephant in the room might need some attention. There may be cognitive bandwidth issues having to do with getting an appointment done.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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