The US Senate Commerce Committee voted on Wednesday to advance law professor and privacy advocate Alvaro Bedoya's nomination to the US Federal Trade Commission.
The committee is deadlocked 14 -- 14 on the nomination but under rules it can go to the full Senate for a vote.
The committee voted to approve a new term for the Federal Communications Commission FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel.
The committee will consider the nomination of Gigi Sohn, a former senior aide to then FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, to an open seat on the FCC, which is currently divided 2 -- 2 between Republicans and Democrats.
Bedoya is a former chief counsel of the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, and is a founding director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy Technology. The full Senate will hold a vote on his nomination.
Bedoya, who called privacy a civil right, has been sceptical of widespread, untargeted use of facial recognition technology and has argued that the software often makes mistakes, particularly when looking for the faces of African Americans, women and young people.
The agency enforces antitrust law and pursues allegations of deceptive advertising, including scams. It reviews deals dealing with pharmaceuticals, a key issue at a time when drug prices have been a political concern.
The Chairwoman Lina Khan, a progressive Democrat, a second Democrat and two Republicans, is currently the chairman of the FTC. The FTC can't take any action on a tie vote.
Bedoya was born in Peru, but is a naturalized US citizen.
Under Trump, the FTC sued Facebook, alleging it broke antitrust law, and under Biden the agency has pursued that lawsuit against Meta, as the company now calls itself. It is looking at Amazon.com, as well as looking at Amazon's US $8.5 billion deal for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios to determine if it is legal under antitrust law.