Diane Bartz and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters] – In the wake of the passing of a Democratic Senator who was unable to cast a crucial vote, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee stated Tuesday that they will no longer be voting on nominees for Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and Federal Communications Commission(FCC).

The panel was scheduled to vote on Gigi Sohn, a former senior aide to Tom Wheeler who served as FCC chairman under former President Barack Obama to serve on the FCC and Alvaro Bedoya, founding director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology, to serve on the FTC.

The committee spokeswoman said that the nominees would be pulled at Wednesday’s hearing to “take into account the necessity for all Democratic votes in the interest of moving certain nominees forward.” A vote to nominate Mary Boyle for the Consumer Product Safety Commission is being delayed by the panel.

This panel is currently divided between Republicans and Democrats as well as Democratic U.S. A member of the committee, Senator Ben Ray Lujan was hospitalized following a stroke. He is expected to fully recover.

The FCC is still divided between Republicans and Democrats more than one year after the election of President Joe Biden. It has also been ineffective on certain issues, such as restoring net neutrality rules which were repealed by President Donald Trump.

While the panel has yet to decide on nominations for some others, Steven Cliff is being considered as the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Since January 2017, the agency had not been led by a Senate-confirmed leader.

On December 14, the panel was 14-14 deadlocked on Bedoya’s FTC nomination. Biden nominated Bedoya as a privacy advocate and law professor after the Senate did not take up the nomination by the close of the year.

FTC investigates and enforces antitrust law.