FSF's May: Post-Independent World Might Call for FCC Restructure
Given White House efforts to bring independent agencies under its control, it may be time to reconsider the FCC's structure, Free State Foundation President Randolph May wrote Monday. President Donald Trump's firing of two Democratic FTC commissioners and a Democratic…
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National Labor Relations Board member is being challenged in court and likely will be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. If SCOTUS sides with the White House, Congress might want to change the FCC's structure and functions "to better comport with what may be the new constitutional reality" of previously independent agencies now under substantial executive branch control, May said. One potential option he cited would be to split FCC functions, with policymaking done by a single official in the executive branch, potentially in NTIA, and a multi-member commission retaining responsibility for holding adjudications and enforcement proceedings. That quasi-judicial function should help keep the commissioners insulated from executive branch interference, he said.