OTI Praises Nomination of Anna Gomez as FCC Commissioner

Yesterday, President Biden nominated veteran government telecommunications lawyer Anna Gomez to fill the vacant fifth seat at the Federal Communications Commission. President Biden also renominated Commissioners Geoffrey Starks and Brendan Carr, each for an additional five-year term.

Gomez — currently Senior Advisor for International Information and Communications Policy at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy — has more than 25 years of experience in telecommunications and technology issues, including 12 years of experience at the FCC and more than 4 years of experience at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. If confirmed, Gomez would be the first Latina to sit on the FCC since 2001.

The following can be attributed to Lilian Coral, Senior Director of the Open Technology Institute and Head of New America's Technology and Democracy Programs:

“All Americans stand to benefit from President Biden’s important nomination of Anna Gomez. As a Latina and a dedicated public servant, Gomez understands the disproportionate impact that barriers to internet access and adoption, the proliferation of online disinformation and hate speech, and other tech-related issues have on Latinx people and other historically marginalized communities.

“Moreover, the confirmations of both Gomez and Starks would spell the end of the FCC’s 2-2 partisan deadlock, which has stalled the agency for nearly two and a half years. We anticipate that this would enable the FCC to reinstate the crucial network neutrality and consumer protections repealed under the Trump Administration’s FCC.

“OTI looks forward to continuing to work with the FCC to ensure that every American has access to affordable and reliable internet so that they can reap the benefits of the digital age.”