Biden names Jessica Rosenworcel as acting FCC chair
Jessica Rosenworcel testifying before Congress. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(JTA) — President Joe Biden has named Jessica Rosenworcel, a champion of net neutrality, to serve as acting chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
Rosenworcel, 49, who is Jewish, is known to be outspoken and has not hesitated to take public her disputes with her fellow commissioners.
Biden will make a decision later about whether to make the appointment permanent.
President Donald Trump repealed net neutrality, which requires internet providers to treat all communications equally. Biden’s appointment is a signal that he intends to restore it in one of many reversals of Trump administration policies.
In 2017, Rosenworcel slammed Republicans on the commission for opposing net neutrality.
That year, she publicly praised the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for its backing of the concept.
“We share the belief, common to both Catholic Social Teaching and the Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam, that a little ruckus in service of human dignity and the common good is a good thing,” she told the group. “So let me make a little ruckus today. I’ll start — and get right into it — with net neutrality.”
Rosenworcel, who has been a commissioner for eight years, is also known for her advocacy regarding the “homework gap,” the difficulties that lower-income schoolkids have in accessing the internet, and also for advocating for bringing the internet to rural areas to improve remote monitoring of patients, particularly mothers with difficult pregnancies.
On Thursday, she thanked Biden on Twitter for naming her the acting chairwoman.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
