As chair of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell has a lot of work to do on nominations and not much time to do it. There are several weeks of purely concentrated hell before the Senate, starting when they return next week (they’re taking this week off) and then resuming again after they take the Thanksgiving week off. There’s the budget reconciliation bill for Build Back Better (BBB), which damn well better pass before the end of the year; the debt ceiling hike, which has to pass, preferably as part of BBB; and keeping the government open after Dec. 3 by funding it. That’s not much floor time for nominations, and Cantwell has a few in front of her committee right now that can’t wait. Literally, they can’t wait because if she puts it off into next year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could revert to Republican control, which would not only be searingly embarrassing for everyone involved from President Joe Biden on down to her and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but would be really bad for all of us, the consumers. The story at the FTC right now is absolutely wild and really not the way any governing should be happening. A month ago, one of the Democratic commissioners on the panel, Rohit Chopra, left for his new job as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one week after he was confirmed in the new role and where he is already being amazing. His departure left the FTC with a 2-2 partisan split, but with his “zombie votes” outliving him. Read more