After Gigi Sohn’s candidacy expired at the end of the previous Congress, President Biden renewed it.
This week, the Senate will hold confirmation hearings for President Biden’s nominee to fill the open seat on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). She has the backing of a group that says police are “agents of white supremacy,” and she failed to receive enough votes from the previous Congress.
The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee will hold a fresh hearing this week for Gigi Sohn, who was initially nominated in 2022 to be a commissioner on the FCC. Her candidacy stalled out in the last Congress, but with a Democratic majority in the house, she has a better chance of receiving the necessary votes to move through to a final vote.
The FCC collaborates with law enforcement in a variety of ways. For example, the FCC has procedures in place for the transmission of emergency warnings across communications networks and for the surveillance of internet and telephone networks as necessary. The FCC also strives to ensure the safety of our nation’s communication infrastructure from any potential threats to it.
In a letter to the committee’s chairman last year, a coalition of advocacy and business groups argued that the FCC’s work would benefit from hearing from people with varying perspectives.
As a government official and consumer advocate, she “has consistently worked with organizations representing various media interests and across the aisle to ensure all views are heard,” the letter read.
In March 2021, 18 Million Rising tweeted, “policing has never been an appropriate reaction to violence since the police are the instruments of white supremacy,” and they are one of the groups that signed the letter.
The letter’s other signatories include the organization Moves On, which has previously tweeted that “Defunding the police… is a #reproductivejustice issue.”
Our Revolution, another signatory, claims that defunding the police is a “priority” and that police agencies use “surplus safety equipment” from the Department of Defense to “brutally” oppress American communities, as stated in a tweet from 2021.
Instead, several law enforcement organizations are vocally opposing Sohn’s candidacy due to her ties to anti-police groups. This includes the National Sheriff’s Association (NSA) and the Fraternal Order of Police. The NSA expressed its worries about remarks made by Sohn that “denigrate law enforcement” in a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee leaders earlier this month.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the committee’s ranking Republican, said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital: “Ms. Sohn has proved time and again to be an extreme partisan, whether via her open antipathy to conservative speech or her well-documented prejudice towards the police. A radical who has advocated for government censorship of Americans with views different from her own would be ill-suited to work at the FCC, given the influence that agency decisions have on what we watch, read, and ultimately believe.”
At her hearing this week, “Ms. Sohn will have much to answer for,” Cruz added.
In its current makeup, the commission lacks the votes necessary to approve any regulatory regulations that are not supported by both parties. If he or she is confirmed, Sohn will be the deciding vote in any deadlock.