Nearly eight months into his term, Biden has yet to pick new leaders at the FCC and NTIA, delaying action on key agenda items, like reinstating net neutrality
Cristiano Lima / Washington Post : Tweets: @cendemtech , @viacristiano , @masspirates , @robpegoraro , @digiphile , and @karlbode Tweets: @cendemtech : “'The commission can't really move forward on that until it gets the fifth Commissioner in place.' More than 50 groups including @CenDemTech & @publicknowledge wrote to Biden in June...citing ‘growing urgency’ & need to ‘ensure a fully functional @FCC.’” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Cristiano Lima / @viacristiano : Here's a ‼️ stat on Biden: Only two other presidents, Carter & Nixon, went this deep into their first full term without naming or having a permanent chair at the FCC since its founding in 1934 https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Mass. Pirate Party / @masspirates : Hey Biden. We could suggest a few people. Call us. https://twitter.com/... Rob Pegoraro / @robpegoraro : The remedy for the Trump administration rushing to put unqualified cronies in charge of agencies can't be nearly eight months of indecision that leaves the FCC and NTIA limping along and invites comparisons to the Carter administration. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Alex Howard / @digiphile : No pleasure in tweeting this: Historic delays in nominating regulators & officials by @potus @JoeBiden are undermining consumer protection, civil liberties, & public health during a pandemic, extreme weather events, & growing global authoritarian threats. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Karl Bode / @karlbode : Biden's delay in appointing a permanent FCC boss is “slower than any president since Jimmy Carter in 1977.” Without the appointment, the FCC remains mired in partisan gridlock and unable to reverse unpopular Trump-era policies or implement real reform. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
The fifth FCC seat has been empty since before Biden took office: by June he had still made no Democratic nomination for the slot (five months in with no pick), leaving the commission split two Democrats and two Republicans just as advocates pressed him to reverse the Trump-era rollback of net neutrality rules (pressure to revive them). Eight months in, neither the FCC nor the NTIA has new leadership, and more than 50 groups including CenDemTech and Public Knowledge have written to Biden citing growing urgency for a fully functional commission.
What followed shows how costly the delay became: the eventual nominee Gigi Sohn faced a 21-month Senate deadlock, with some 250 industry groups urging a floor vote (the industry letter), before she ultimately withdrew her nomination after sixteen months of opposition and personal attacks (Sohn's exit).
First-order effects
- With a 2-2 Democratic-Republican split, the FCC cannot pass the contested items on Biden's telecom agenda — reinstating net neutrality foremost among them — because it lacks a Democratic majority until the fifth commissioner is seated.
- The NTIA, without a confirmed leader, sits alongside the FCC on the sidelines while advocacy groups' June letter presses the White House to make picks.
Second-order effects
- Ajit Pai-era deregulatory decisions stay in force longer than the administration intended, since a deadlocked commission cannot muster votes to reverse them even though experts expect reversal once Democrats control the agency.
- Nomination fights become the bottleneck for telecom policy itself: Senate confirmation politics, not commission deliberation, determines whether broadband rules change — as the Sohn deadlock and eventual withdrawal demonstrated.
Third-order effects
- If vacancies and stalled confirmations remain routine, FCC rulemaking shifts from an administrative function to a hostage of Senate politics, stretching multi-year gaps between regulatory direction changes across administrations.
- Advocacy coalitions and industry groups adapt by escalating directly to the Senate and the White House rather than the agency, making commissioner selection the decisive battleground for internet policy outcomes.
The trend: Telecom regulation is being held hostage to Senate confirmation politics, with the pace of net neutrality and broadband rule changes set less by the FCC than by how long presidential nominees sit unconfirmed.