Diane Bartz, David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee voted Wednesday in favor of Alvaro Bedoya, a privacy advocate and law professor, being nominated to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

The nomination was rejected by the committee 14-14. However, it is allowed to proceed to the Senate under its rules for a vote.

A separate vote was taken by the committee to approve Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC chair, for a second term.

The committee will also consider Wednesday’s nomination of Gigi Son, a former top aide to Tom Wheeler to an open FCC seat. Currently, it is divided 2-2 between Republicans, Democrats.

Bedoya, founding director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology, is also a former chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law. The full Senate will now consider his nomination.

Bedoya who calls privacy “a civil human right” has criticised widespread and untargeted facial recognition technology. She argued that it often makes errors, especially when looking for faces of African Americans and women.

This agency is responsible for enforcing antitrust law. It also investigates allegations of fraudulent advertising and other deceptive practices. It examines deals that involve pharmaceuticals.

The current FTC includes Chairwoman Lina Khan (a progressive Democrat), a second Democrat, and two Republicans. A tie vote is not allowed to be considered by the FTC.

Bedoya is an American citizen who was born in Peru.

Trump’s FTC sued Facebook (NASDAQ.) alleging that it violated antitrust laws. Biden has now pursued the lawsuit against Meta, the division of the company. They are also looking into Amazon.com.