After failing to get enough votes to confirm her following her October 2021 nomination to the post, President Biden has renominated Gigi Sohn to fill the vacant fifth commissioner seat at the FCC.
Sohn’s stalled nomination had set a record for the longest a candidate for the FCC had gone without a confirmation vote as she couldn’t garner enough votes to proceed. The new appointment will be for a five year term retroactively starting on July 1, 2021 filling the seat previously held by former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
From 2013-2016, Gigi served as Counselor to Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, and from 2001-2013 was Co-Founder and CEO of communications and technology policy advocacy organization Public Knowledge and Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation’s Media, Arts and Culture unit and Executive Director of the Media Access Project. If she is confirmed, Gigi would be the first openly LGBTIQ+ Commissioner in the history of the FCC.