House Commerce Republicans Press Biden to Nominate FCC IG
House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta and Rep. Bill Johnson, both Ohio Republicans, urged President Joe Biden Monday to “prioritize” naming an FCC inspector general nominee. David Hunt has been FCC…
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IG since 2011, before Congress made the position Senate-confirmable via the 2018 Repack Airwaves Yielding Better Access for Users of Modern Services Act. Then-President Donald Trump repeatedly nominated Covington & Burling’s Chase Johnson as FCC IG, but the Senate failed to approve him before the end of 2020 (see 2012210055). Biden subsequently revoked Trump’s 2021 renomination of Johnson (see 2102050064). “Since enactment, this position has been vacant,” Rodgers and the other GOP lawmakers wrote Biden. “While the law provides that the existing IG may continue to perform these functions until a nominee is confirmed by the Senate, it has been over a year and a half since you took office without nominating a candidate.” The IG office “issued an advisory” in November that found some emergency broadband benefit providers were falsely claiming a child in a household attended a qualifying low-income school (see 2111220058). “Given the unprecedented funding made available to the FCC in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the increased potential for waste, fraud, and abuse, we ask that you expedite the nomination of a candidate to serve as the FCC’s IG,” the lawmakers said.