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Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, our colleagues on the Commerce Committee will hear from someone they already know very well. Our Democratic colleagues have scheduled yet another hearing for a radical nominee they have already twice failed to get through the Senate. Now, the far left is betting the third time will be a charm.

The problem is Gigi Sohn is no more qualified to be installed on the FCC than she was back in 2021 or 2022.

The Federal Communications Commission is an important and sensitive regulatory body. It is charged with regulating a huge amount of our communications with each other as American citizens: our radio and television, our cable and satellite, our broadband internet. They are unelected people who exercise enormous power in areas that directly intersect with the American people's First Amendment rights and free speech and free expression.

The country needs our FCC Commissioners to be thoughtful, sober, nonpartisan referees, not activists and ideologues who want to bend our airwaves to their agenda.

This nominee, Ms. Sohn, has spent her entire career proving she is totally--totally--unsuited to this sensitive job. She is a hardcore liberal activist who has literally said the FCC should consider revoking the broadcast licenses at news stations that she disagreed with. That is completely disqualifying and then some. This is America. We don't pull journalists and broadcasters off the air because unelected bureaucrats disagree with them.

And this only scratches the surface. She has a record of siding with criminals over law enforcement. She has deep, longstanding ties to a radical organization that opposes law enforcement's lawful access to data and information--an organization connected to, among other people, the leaker, liar, and fugitive Edward Snowden.

Among the strongest supporters of her nomination are groups who have called American cops ``agents of white supremacy.'' The same people who want to defund the police, who oppose laws against online sex trafficking--they want this woman in this position of power. And they want it badly.

The Fraternal Order of Police wrote our colleagues Senator Cruz and Senator Cantwell to explain that putting Gigi Sohn on the FCC would be a disaster for law and order. They said confirming this person would ``show a complete disregard for the hard-working men and women of law enforcement.''

And even unrelated to her radical views, this nominee is also swamped with serious ethical questions. Seven years ago, when she was advising a past FCC Chairman, the Commission was closing in on a bipartisan deal she thought was too moderate. So she leaked nonpublic information in order to gin up outrage from the radical left, pressure the Commissioners, and tank the compromise.

In another instance, she was a board member of an organization that stole copyrighted content and illegally put it online.

Every American who watches sports on TV knows that familiar disclaimer--that you can't rebroadcast television programs without express written consent. Well, this nominee helped run an entire organization whose very mission--very mission--was violating copyright law in that sort of way.

And it gets even worse. Ms. Sohn's organization was supposed to pay a huge fine to the broadcasters, over $30 million. But at just the same time that she was nominated by the President to regulate and oversee these broadcasters, they all magically reached a new settlement that just so happened to reduce the fine by 98 percent--from $32 million to a few hundred thousand dollars, just like that.

When Senators have asked for more details about these questionable settlements, she has been less than forthcoming. The fact pattern makes one wonder if she thought she could start cashing in favors from the people she is supposed to regulate before she even got the job.

Oh, and by the way, this nominee made personal cash contributions to the campaigns of multiple current sitting Senators while her own nomination was pending before them. She sent money to four Democratic Senators even as a pending nominee--a pending nominee--before the Senate.

The latest reappearance of this nomination is a case study in President Biden's refusal to pivot, moderate, or find common ground. They are tripling down on extremism that even a Democratic Senate has already rejected twice. I urge our colleagues on the Commerce Committee to push for answers.

The Senate must say no to a radical activist controlling our airwaves. And the American people should ask why--why--the Biden administration is this desperate to control what citizens can see, hear, think, and say.

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