In early September, the Senate voted to approve the nomination of Anna Gomez, giving the Biden Administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) a 3–2 Democratic majority. In a new insight, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy Jeffrey Westling examines three potential issues the agency could choose to tackle post-confirmation, how it would likely proceed, and Congress’ role in overseeing the agency’s actions.

Key points:

• The FCC has for over two years operated with two Democratic and two Republican commissioners.
• With a Democratic majority, the FCC will likely take on the more politically contentious policy issues over which the agency has thus far been deadlocked, such as network neutrality, digital discrimination, and reviewing broadcast ownership rules.
• As the FCC begins to take on these more challenging issues, lawmakers should continue to engage in oversight of the agency to ensure it doesn’t go beyond its congressionally granted authority.

Read the analysis