Two California Bay Area editorial boards jointly urged the Senate Thursday to “break the stalemate” on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn. President Joe Biden renominated Sohn earlier this month, following stalled confirmation processes in 2021 and 2022 (see 2301030060). Sohn’s confirmation “would end the 2-2 deadlock on the FCC that is keeping Biden from fulfilling his campaign promise to restore net neutrality, ensuring that all internet traffic is treated equally,” the Mercury News and East Bay Times editorial said. Republicans and communications sector companies opposed to Sohn “don’t want that to happen. They favor the status quo that allows the internet companies to pick winners and losers by charging content providers higher rates for speedier access to customers.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation cited the editorial in a renewed call for Sohn’s confirmation.

National Hispanic Media Coalition CEO Brenda Castillo expressed dissatisfaction Wednesday over President Joe Biden’s decision to renominate Gigi Sohn as the third FCC Democratic commissioner instead of heeding the Jan. 2 call of that group and others to select “a person of Latino descent” for the vacant seat (see 2301050062). The last person to represent the community on the commission, Gloria Tristani, left in September 2001. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (see 2102110043) and others began pressing Biden in early 2021 to nominate a Latino FCC commissioner. Sohn’s renomination is drawing Senate Commerce Committee GOP calls for the panel to conduct a full new vetting process (see 2301030060). Just 13 of the 99 nominees Biden picked since the beginning of January are part of the Latino community, which “is not an accurate representation of the Latino community, and diminishes the leadership opportunities available to our community for key positions in” the U.S. government, Castillo said. NHMC is particularly “disappointed” by Biden nominating “a non-Latino candidate for the sole open” FCC seat given the Hispanic groups’ Jan. 2 letter, “to which we received no response.” The group stopped short of asking Biden to formally withdraw Sohn’s renomination. The “representation of Latinos at agencies, like the FCC,” is “a necessary component of meaningful progress," Castillo said: “But, progress for some does not equate to progress for all -- especially when some of us are denied a seat at the table.”

Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., will be House Homeland Security Committee chair for the 118th Congress, he announced Monday. The committee has jurisdiction over the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and oversees key cyber issues. Securing the “cyber border” will be one of two top priorities, said Green.

The House voted 365-65 Tuesday on House Resolution 11 to create a select committee on “strategic competition” between the U.S. and China, which will investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s “economic, technological, and security progress.” H. Res. 11 tasks the committee with providing policy recommendations to Congress. The panel, to be chaired by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., will include seven Republicans and five Democrats. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said during floor debate “this will be a bipartisan committee,” though he faulted the Biden administration for executing policies that he believes has weakened the U.S. versus China. It’s “my hope, my desire, my wish that we speak with one voice” on China and focus “on the challenges that we have,” including to secure “our intellectual property.” House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said the Democratic caucus is concerned “about this turning into a committee that focuses on pushing Republican conspiracy theories and partisan talking points” and instead wants the panel to produce “bipartisan work with a fact-based tone and approach that could be received by the international community, seriously and substantively.” McGovern cautioned against focusing “myopically” on security challenges posed by China, which could “distract us from the need to build a holistic approach in many areas” given the U.S. faces “technological … challenges from many regions across the globe.”

Free State Foundation President Randolph May criticized “the scattershot nature that defines the current multi-agency, multi-program approach to disbursing broadband subsidies” in his response Friday to a call from Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., for stakeholder input for his review of all federal broadband funding programs. Comments were due Friday. Thune launched the review in December in a bid to hold executive branch agencies accountable for their disbursal of money from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and other measures (see 2212060067).

Former Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said Friday it’s “disappointing” that President Joe Biden renominated Gigi Sohn to the FCC Tuesday (see 2301030026). Wicker remains a Senate Commerce member but left as ranking member to become lead Republican on the Armed Services Committee. Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., said he and other Republicans will seek a full re-vetting of Sohn as part of her 2023 confirmation process (see 2301030060). Sohn “is still the wrong choice to fill this vacancy at the FCC,” Wicker tweeted: “Deep reservations about her far-left agenda, ingrained bias, and obligatory recusal on key issues led many to oppose her last Congress.” Sohn agreed last year she would temporarily recuse herself from some retransmission consent and broadcast copyright proceedings if confirmed (see 2201270073).

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Tuesday he’s promoting Jennifer Epperson to be the Communications Subcommittee’s chief Democratic counsel and hiring ex-White House National Economic Council Senior Broadband and Technology Policy Adviser Lisa Hone to be Democrats’ chief counsel on the Consumer Protection Subcommittee. Epperson, previously senior Democratic counsel on Communications, was “instrumental in expanding access to high speed internet service and making broadband more affordable,” House Commerce said. Hone, previously legal adviser to then-FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, also has experience as FTC Consumer Protection Bureau Marketing Practices Division assistant director. In that role she “litigated cases and supervised attorneys and investigators conducting consumer protection investigations,” House Commerce said.

To meet broadband deployment labor needs, the federal government and states could consider partnering on broadband workforce training, the Congressional Research Service said Friday. It said while some stakeholders contend shortages may hinder broadband deployment, others appear to disagree there is a broadband workforce shortage. CRS said options before the 118th Congress include directing federal agencies to collect more data on the broadband workforce to help determine whether a workforce shortage exists, and if that in turn affects efforts to close the digital divide. Congress also could direct the FCC, NTIA and Agriculture Department to collect information from grant recipients on any difficulty experienced in securing skilled technicians for deployment projects as part of reporting requirements, it said. Lawmakers might also want to consider legislation based on recommendations that come out of the agency reports and guidance pursuant to the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act, it said. Other options include a study to measure performance metrics to gauge the effectiveness of existing training programs, it said. Congress could also establish a program or amend an existing broadband program to include requirements for broadband workforce training and development, CRS said.

House Commerce Committee leaders hailed Friday's congressional passage (see 2212220075) of the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act (S-1541) and Low Power Protection Act (S-3405). S-1541’s language to require the FCC to factor industrywide average costs for telephone and advanced communication services, along with safety and security costs, in new rate-setting cycles for services for the incarcerated, is “a well-documented way to produce better outcomes and lower rates of recidivism nationwide,” said House Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and lead sponsor Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill. “Exorbitant phone fees only serve to line industry pockets and harm families, but now that predatory practice will come to an end.” Low-power TV “stations play a critical role in ensuring access to local or specialized programming, especially in smaller communities and rural areas,” said House Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. HR-3405, which requires the FCC to open a window to allow low-power television stations to upgrade to better-protected Class A status (see 2206220070), “will help improve these services for people across the country.”

The House voted 225-201 Friday to pass the FY 2023 appropriations omnibus legislative package (HR-2617), which would extend the FCC’s spectrum auction authority through March 9. The Senate passed the measure Thursday (see 2212220075). President Joe Biden said Friday he planned to sign it “as soon as it reaches my desk,” averting a shutdown that would otherwise have occurred Friday night. Biden separately signed off Friday on the FY23 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-7776), which includes language to restrict the federal government’s use of products with semiconductor manufacturers deemed to be Chinese military contractors (see 2212070056). The omnibus includes increases in federal funding for the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies, the DOJ Antitrust Division and CPB (see 2212210077). Lawmakers agreed to temporarily renew the FCC’s auction authority via the omnibus after Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., objected to the inclusion of a spectrum legislative deal reached by the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees (see 2212200077). House Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash, who’s set to take the committee gavel when the 118th Congress convenes in January, criticized the process that led to the omnibus’ passage, saying, “There simply isn’t enough accountability built into this bill. It’s long past time that Congress do its job and consider legislation to fund the government in a way that prioritizes an open and accountable process.”