The Senate Commerce Committee was eyeing a March 13 confirmation hearing for NTIA nominee Arielle Roth and potentially also FCC nominee Olivia Trusty, but that panel wasn’t final as of Thursday afternoon, several communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. President Donald Trump nominated Roth, Senate Commerce Republicans’ telecom policy director, in early February (see 2502040056). Trump picked Trusty, a Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer, for the FCC seat that former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vacated Jan. 20 (see 2501160077).
The FCC shouldn't act as a “Ministry of Truth,” and there isn't a constitutional basis for the agency to go after local broadcasters, said Commissioner Nathan Simington during an interview Tuesday that seemed aimed at soothing broadcasters' concerns about the FCC's new direction. “I’m not in the business of deciding who’s telling the truth and who’s not,” Simington said onstage at the NAB State Leadership Conference. “And what’s more, [FCC Chairman Brendan] Carr thinks the same way." Carr said last week that FCC precedent set by the previous administration supports proceedings he has opened against broadcast networks over their programming and news content.
Former Republican FCC Commissioners Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Mike O’Rielly were among 10 officials who jointly endorsed GOP FCC nominee Olivia Trusty on Wednesday. In January, then-President-elect Donald Trump said he planned to nominate Trusty, a Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer, to the FCC seat that former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vacated (see 2501160064).
Free Press co-CEOs Jessica Gonzalez and Craig Aaron urged the Senate Commerce Committee to "refuse to ratify" President Donald Trump's FTC and FCC picks ahead of a Tuesday hearing with FTC nominee Mark Meador, a former staffer for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and FCC nominee Olivia Trusty, who was an aide to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Gonzalez and Aaron said in a Monday blog that the committee should not act "unless and until the Trump administration reverses course, guarantees the independence of expert agencies, disavows any plans to remove sitting commissioners, and respects the separation of powers." They also urged the Senate Commerce Committee to "haul in" FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson to "answer for their actions before giving them even more power to abuse." The Trump administration is "threatening to remove sitting commissioners without cause, slashing budgets with abandon, and sacking staff without authority or due process," the co-CEOs said. "It’s a brazen abuse of executive power designed to settle political scores and undermine the long history of bipartisan deliberation and debate that informs decision-making at these essential agencies."
The outlook is uncertain about whether President Donald Trump will attempt to fire Democratic members of the FCC, as the administration asserts its authority over “so-called independent” agencies (see 2502190073). It’s unclear whether the FCC and its Democratic members, Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks, are in Trump’s sights, but no one is taking anything for granted from the current administration, industry experts said. Gomez is emerging as the more outspoken critic of the regime under Chairman Brendan Carr, especially on media items (see 2502200023).
The Senate voted 52-45 along party lines Thursday to invoke cloture on commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick, setting up his final confirmation vote for next week. The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Lutnick last week amid opposition from panel Democrats over the nominee’s stance on implementing NTIA’s $42.5 billion BEAD program and other matters (see 2502050052). President Donald Trump formally sent the Senate on Wednesday night his nomination of Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty to the FCC seat former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vacated Jan. 20 (see 2501160077).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, acknowledged Wednesday that newly announced NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth may draw panel Democrats’ ire during her confirmation process over potential changes from the Trump administration and Congress to the $42.5 billion NTIA-administered BEAD program. Senate Commerce advanced commerce secretary nominee Howard Lutnick to the floor 16-12 Wednesday, as expected (see 2502040056), against near-uniform Democratic opposition aimed in part at his positions on BEAD. The panel also cleared a revised version of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act (S-315) and three other tech and telecom bills: the Rural Broadband Protection Act (S-98), Insure Cybersecurity Act (S-245) and Kids Off Social Media Act (S-278).
Senate Commerce Committee Democrats are already signaling that they're unlikely to give new NTIA administrator pick Arielle Roth a free pass through her confirmation process, particularly given their amplified doubts about how the agency-administered, $42.5 billion BEAD program will fare under Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary nominee (see 2501290047). Several Senate Commerce Democrats are likely to vote against Lutnick at a Wednesday panel meeting, but lobbyists told us he is all but certain to advance to the floor with unified GOP support.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Monday night that President Donald Trump is nominating panel Republican Telecom Policy Director Arielle Roth as NTIA's leader, as expected. Lobbyists had previously also tipped Roth as a top contender for former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s seat but Trump nominated Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer Olivia Trusty for that role instead. Roth was previously a legislative aide to former Senate Commerce member Roy Blunt, R-Mo., O’Rielly’s wireline adviser and a Wireline Bureau legal adviser. She also had stints at the Hudson Institute and Federalist Society.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will undoubtedly continue focusing on his core issues of deregulation, competition, infrastructure development and national security, Venable lawyers Craig Gilley and Liz Clark Rinehart wrote Thursday. How quickly he can steer the agency in that direction will depend on Congress' speed in confirming Olivia Trusty as the third Republican commissioner, giving him the majority he needs, they added. A Carr administration means the agency will change course on communications policy issues including net neutrality, broadband regulation, digital equity, spectrum, rationalizing federal infrastructure spending and BEAD, and content moderation online, they said. Carr will likely take a narrower view of the scope of FCC authority and use competition, rather than regulation, to protect consumers. However, he will be a more aggressive regulator on national security matters. GOP control of Capitol Hill and the White House makes net neutrality "a non-issue over the next four years," though whether the FCC can explicitly preempt state net neutrality regulations remains an open question, the lawyers said. If the FCC's digital discrimination rules survive the current challenge before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Carr's FCC would likely revisit and repeal them, they said. The Republican-controlled Congress isn't likely to restore Affordable Connectivity Program funding, "given where Congressional Republicans are on budget issues." They said they expect Carr's FCC to focus on streamlining rules for fiber and infrastructure deployment, such as limiting fees that states and local governments can charge for permit application reviews.