Friend,

President Biden was sworn into office on Jan. 21, 2021.

Flash forward more than two years later: It’s June 2023, and we still don’t have a fully functional Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Never before has the American public had to wait so long for a commissioner’s seat to be filled.

The FCC has remained in an unprecedented 2–2 deadlock as deep-pocketed phone, cable and broadcast companies have worked to hamstring the agency that oversees their businesses. Enough. Will you join Free Press Action in sending a letter to your senators demanding they swiftly confirm FCC nominees Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks? It takes just a minute and every action makes a difference.

This delay is harming millions of people, including working families trying to pay their rising monthly bills as well as Black, Indigenous, Latinx and rural communities that the biggest telecom companies and broadcast conglomerates have long neglected.

The nomination of Gomez and renomination of Starks follows a protracted and ultimately failed effort to confirm Gigi Sohn — a public-interest champion whose confirmation ran up against a vicious and relentless smear campaign by telecom and broadcast lobbyists, right-wing media and astroturf operatives.

Without an agency watchdog operating with the majority it needs, those same companies are able to engage in unjust, unreasonable and discriminatory actions. And we know they’re going to do everything in their power to keep the FCC’s deadlock intact. If you agree that the Senate must act immediately to give the nation a fully functioning FCC, please sign the petition to your senators today. The more petition signatures we can deliver, the louder our call for action will be.

Heather and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net

P.S. If the Senate wants to improve the lives of internet users, cellphone customers, TV watchers and radio listeners — meaning everyone — it needs to confirm Anna Gomez and reconfirm Geoffrey Starks before the clock runs out at the FCC. Sign a petition to your senators today.