Unprecedented amounts of money, plenty of it dark, has been pouring into the coffers of both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, much of it aimed at hobbling President Joe Biden’s administration from doing all those great things for consumers he’s promised. The number one priority of these groups right now is Gigi Sohn, Biden’s nominee to be the fifth and deciding member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Right now it’s deadlocked with two Republicans and two Democrats, unable to act on plenty of Biden’s directives. Which is exactly how Big Telecom wants it.
Unfortunately, a handful of Democrats are playing along. Sohn’s confirmation has been pending for two years, and she’s had three nomination hearings. The Commerce Committed chaired by Sen. Maria Cantrell has approved her twice, with a vote from her third hearing pending. But she hasn’t made it to the floor because of those Democrats who won’t commit. They are putting Big Telecom and Big Tech ahead of their constituents. Many of those constituents are rural, by the way, and are particularly harmed by a hamstrung FCC.
That great bipartisan infrastructure bill these Democrats, especially Joe Manchin, love to tout had gobs of money for rural broadband, you see. That was something Democrats and Republicans could both champion, especially coming out of the pandemic when the whole of society relied on a functioning internet connection. Images of children trying to attend online class and do their homework in cars outside of fast food joint with free wireless come to mind.
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Manchin, along with Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Mark Kelly of Arizona, and newly declared independent Kyrsten Sinema have been questionable on Sohn’s appointment, giving weight to spurious Republican attacks on irrelevant details like a few of her retweets about issues that have absolutely nothing to do with the FCC or what her job there would entail.
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Craig Holman, Public Citizen’s Capitol Hill lobbyist on ethics and campaign finance, explained what’s going on behind the scenes to Salon. He argues that what the telecom industry is doing to push out Sohn is an example of how dark money is a big bipartisan problem for Biden’s larger agenda. “While some dark money groups spend most of their money supporting candidates of a single party—One Nation supporting only Republicans and Majority Forward supporting only Democrats, for example—many dark money groups could care less about party affiliation and support anyone who promotes their specific causes,” Holman said.
“This is particularly the case for industry-related dark money groups, such as in the telecom industry,” he continued. Just the declared telecom lobbying money for the 2022 cycle was $117 million to candidates. That’s not including the dark money that boosted campaigns. And right now, Holman says, it’s focused on blocking Sohn “despite the fact that she espouses traditionally Democratic values and thus should otherwise easily be confirmed by the Democratic majority in the Senate.”
It appears to be working with some of these Democrats, who have an opportunity right now who they’re going to back: their constituents in rural and underserved areas or Comcast. Because that’s the biggest battle line right now. In fact, the FCC is reportedly investigating whether ISPs have been lying to the public about their broadband service, allegedly exaggerating their high-speed internet coverage.
Those maps matter because the ISPs could be looking to cash in on the $42 billion for subsidies the government is ready to start spending to expand coverage to rural and underserved areas. That funding was included in the infrastructure bill, and the FCC needs accurate maps to help make sure that money is actually going to high-speed internet in homes and schools and businesses, not relying simply on the industry giants’ claims of where they have coverage.
The FCC needs a fifth commissioner now to do the job of getting those funds where they need to go. And they need Sohn to do that. Even a former Trump appointee has been stressing that. Chad Rupe was rural utilities service administrator at the USDA under Trump, and he’s been advocating for Sohn—the ultra-liberal lesbian Republican senators have been smearing—because she’s the person for the job.
Last year he wrote in the Daily Yonder that there can be “no doubt that Sohn is dedicated to ensuring that everyone in rural America is connected.” He argued that she “orked to help shape the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which provides over $45 billion to deploy broadband in rural America and tribal lands and another nearly $20 billion to ensure that low-income households can afford broadband and have the skills and the means to use it.”
Rupe testified in support of Sohn again last week. “During my time as the USDA Rural Development State Director for Wyoming, and as the Administrator for RUS, I led the Trump administration’s efforts to get broadband to our rural communities, including through the Reconnect Broadband Program and implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill,” Rupe testified. “It was as the State Broadband Program Manager for Montana that I got to know Gigi and see how she approaches challenges like bringing broadband to rural America.”
What he saw from Sohn was that she is “deeply passionate about the importance of working to close the digital divide for all of our communities,” and that “she understands the term rural means much more than a designation given to an area based on population.”
Importantly, I saw that she firmly believes that these are not partisan issues. And when we make them partisan, we fail to serve the folks in those rural communities who are just looking to ensure their families are able to enjoy the many benefits that come from broadband connectivity.
Again, that’s coming from a Trump appointee, and someone who knows the industry and knows what’s needed at the FCC. That should be enough for the holdout Democrats—those who immediately assume the crouch position when the GOP starts yelling about a nominee’s tweets—to reject the specious and frankly disgusting rhetoric coming from Sohn’s opposition. It should also be enough to tell voters where their true loyalties lie: with the people they’re supposed to be representing, or with Big Telecom. This is on instance where it really is that simple.
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