Schumer Floor Remarks Calling on the Senate to Reject The Nomination Of Nathan Simington To The FCC

Washington, D.C. — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor urging colleagues to reject the confirmation of FCC nominee Nathan Simington and his misleading remarks to the Commerce Committee about his role in the president’s desired changes to Section 230. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The Senate will vote today on the nomination of Nathan Simington, a Republican nominee to the FCC. Normally, these nominations to independent boards and commissions are paired, one Democrat and one Republican, to keep the balance on the board. But here in the waning days of a lame duck presidency, the Republican majority is rushing to approve a single Republican nominee.

The nominee himself is far from uncontroversial. Mr. Simington’s key qualification seems to be that he supports President Trump’s desired changes to Section 230, a law that regulates internet speech. In fact, it appears that he severely misled Senators on the Commerce Committee when he told them, while working for a federal agency, he played only administrative role in his department’s petition for the repeal of Section 230. It turns out that Mr. Simington was not only pushing the petition himself, he was actively lobbying Fox News to support it—for political reasons.

I strongly urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to reject Mr. Simington’s nomination to the FCC.

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