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Comment by bleepblop | Hacker News Reader

> That could be difficult because the FCC is currently headed by a four-person board that has been politically deadlocked since President Joe Biden took office and Chair Ajit Pai stepped down. Biden’s nominee to replace Pai, Gigi Sohn, was never confirmed, leading her to withdraw her nomination earlier this year. Biden submitted telecommunications attorney Anna Gomez in her place — her first hearing is expected to take place in two days on June 22nd.

Well, until Congress decides to not kneecap every department in the government. We're kind of boned.

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There are certainly many candidates that congress would approve. They are under no obligation to accept executive nominations they disapprove of. That's the point of senate approval!

If Biden considered it a crisis that the FCC has an open seat, he would look for a clearly palatable candidate.

https://www.theverge.com/23437518/biden-fcc-gigi-sohn-fox-ne... Rupert Murdoch & Co got scared that they'd somehow use the FCC to censor conservative speech so they ran a successful media campaign to slander her and used all their power to block her. The vote to confirm her never even made it to the Senate floor. Every day of FCC stalemate is another gift to companies that benefit from the huge lack of regulation in these sectors. It's just a shame that so many people now are convinced that this situation is fine (or they don't know / care and just go full team red on every issue) and that the critical infrastructure in this country should be entirely owned and operated by for-profit rent-seeking companies that collude in a race to the bottom.

That's great and I still don't care, the senate has the constitutional authority to block whoever it wants for any reason.

> Well, until Congress decides to not kneecap every department in the government

Checks and balances is called kneecapping these days? There is a reason the president doesn't have unlimited power over the executive branch.

Well, I mean if you're all into getting nickeled and dimed using telecommunications services subsidized by the public; you do you I suppose.

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