FCC Nominee Trusty Likely to Face Senate Commerce Democrats' Wrath on Carr FCC Actions
Senate Commerce Committee Democrats appeared set Tuesday afternoon to pillory Republican FCC candidate Olivia Trusty during her confirmation hearing Wednesday over concerns about the commission's independence from the Trump administration and Chairman Brendan Carr’s actions since he took the gavel Jan. 20. Congressional Democrats have amplified concerns about the FCC’s future independence since President Donald Trump’s disputed firing of both party-affiliated FTC commissioners (see 2504010053). Trusty’s hearing will immediately follow a scheduled 10 a.m. Senate Commerce meeting to vote on NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth, which is likely to see her advance with strong GOP support and little to no Democratic backing (see 2504080059). Both events will occur in 253 Russell.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., indicated in interviews that their questions for Trusty will touch on the nominee’s opinions on the FCC’s independence from the Trump administration and Carr’s chairmanship, particularly a series of investigations of broadcasters. Cantwell told us she would likely recast some of her questions from Roth’s March 27 confirmation hearing (see 2503270065), which focused primarily on the Trump administration’s commitment to distributing broadband funding and spectrum issues, but would also “broaden” her inquiry to cover the broadcaster probes and matters “the FCC has failed to act on” under Carr.
Lujan noted misgivings that Carr “decided not to bring back all” four broadcaster investigations that the FCC dismissed in January ahead of Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel's resignation, instead resurrecting only the Center for American Rights’ complaints against ABC, CBS and NBC. Carr opted to forego revisiting the Media and Democracy Project’s dismissed petition against Fox’s WTXF Philadelphia (see 2501160011). The FCC probes thus far focus on broadcasters that have carried content critical of Trump or otherwise face claims of pro-Democratic Party bias. Carr has, in some cases, said the scrutiny is focused on other matters (see 2502110063).
Lujan said he also wants Trusty to speak about Carr's comments that appear to undermine the FCC's independence from the executive branch. She should explain whether she views the role of an FCC commissioner as being part of “an independent body, or are you there as [Trump's] scorekeeper? What kind of commission are we going to see going forward?” Anyone who “is going to be considered for the FCC is going to have to face” queries about Carr's actions, “and they should be prepared to answer” them, Lujan said.
Wicker's Warning
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who recommended that Trump nominate Trusty (see 2411220045), told us he hopes Senate Commerce Democrats don’t turn the nominee’s confirmation hearing into a trial of Carr’s early days as FCC chairman. The seat by statute should go to a Republican now that the party controls the White House, and Democrats are “quite aware they’re not going to get a better or more fair” person in the role than Trusty.
“Some [Democrats] may” decide to use Trusty’s hearing to deride Carr’s tenure, but the emphasis ought to be on the nominee being “one of the most qualified people who’s ever come” up for an FCC commissioner role, Wicker said. Trusty is a Senate Armed Services GOP aide and was previously Senate Commerce’s GOP telecom policy director when Wicker was that panel’s lead Republican.
New Street’s Blair Levin told us he fully expects Trusty will face a Democratic-led push to “answer for some of” Carr’s actions, including his pushback against a probe of the broadcaster investigations by Senate Homeland Security Investigations Subcommittee ranking member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. (see 2504030063). She will probably also face “questions about the appropriateness of holding up” communications industry mergers “for non-deal-related issues” and whether Trump has the power to fire Commissioner Anna Gomez, given his ousting of Democrats at the FTC and other federal entities, Levin said: But “have little doubt that she would be confirmed. She's very well liked, very well respected.”
Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and a former aide to Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, acknowledged that it's “the purview of senators to ask any questions that they want” during a confirmation hearing, “and they usually do. But I do think there's a good story to be told about what the FCC has done under” Carr's leadership. “I don't know that [Trusty] is really a great target for” critics of Carr and Trump to latch onto “because she's not someone who's worked in the industry,” Leamer said. “She's worked in public service for her entire career” and has “worked on both sides with people on both sides of the aisle.”