Enlarge / Gigi Sohn testifies during a Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing on Feb. 9, 2022. (credit: Getty Images)

President Biden’s long-stalled nominee to the Federal Communications Commission fired back at her critics today, saying that the telecom industry shouldn’t be allowed to choose its own regulators.

“I believe deeply that regulated entities should not choose their regulator,” Sohn said in prepared testimony for a Senate Commerce Committee nomination hearing today. “Unfortunately, that is the exact intent of the past 15 months of false and misleading attacks on my record and my character. My industry opponents have hidden behind dark money groups and surrogates because they fear a pragmatic, pro-competition, pro-consumer policymaker who will support policies that will bring more, faster, and lower-priced broadband and new voices to your constituents.”

Biden first nominated Sohn, a longtime consumer advocate and former FCC official, on October 26, 2021. The full Senate never voted on whether to confirm Sohn as an FCC commissioner, and Biden renominated her last month. With the FCC deadlocked at two Democrats and two Republicans, Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel hasn’t been able to pursue any major regulation of an industry that was deregulated during the Trump era.