Gomez Doesn't Expect Widespread Use of Good-Cause Exemption by FCC
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez said at a listening session and panel discussion hosted Wednesday by Free Press that she doesn’t expect the agency to “liberally” use a good-cause exception to notice-and-comment rules or delegated authority when it takes action on the “Delete” docket. “I am hopeful that, in fact, a lot of these rules will come up to vote,” she said at the Los Angeles event, which was part of her “First Amendment Tour” (see 2504240064).
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Gomez also discussed attacks on free speech by President Donald Trump and the FCC (see 2505280063), saying that opponents of the administration shouldn’t become overwhelmed by their blitz of intimidation and threats. “I heard you say that you’re tired,” she told the crowd at the close of Wednesday’s forum. “It's a little early to be tired. So let's hope that we get inspired and are lifted up by each other as we work to protect our precious democracy that can be very fragile.”
An April Trump executive order said agencies could use a good-cause exemption to avoid administrative procedure requirements when repealing rules that are claimed to run counter to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, such as those ending Chevron deference and establishing the major-questions doctrine (see 2504100067). Gomez said Wednesday she isn't seeing indications that the FCC plans to make much use of that exemption, though Chairman Brendan Carr said in a press conference last week that it will be a “useful tool” (see 2505160064).
Gomez also said Wednesday that she doesn’t think the courts would side with Carr if he were to try to repeal rules that the full FCC previously voted on without holding another vote on deleting them. “I don't believe that a commission action that does not have the full vote of the commission will survive judicial scrutiny.”
She is, however, “concerned” about the chairman’s plans for media ownership rules, she said, enumerating White House and FCC actions against broadcast networks, universities, museums, public broadcasters, tech companies, independent agencies, Voice of America, law firms and others. Panelist Alejandra Santamaria, CEO of Southern California Public Radio, said that losing CPB funds, as the administration is proposing, would lead her station to cut 13 or so people from its newsroom. That would “really limit the ability to hold folks to account and to really do the work,” she said.
Gomez said the actions are “an administration-wide effort to censor and control, and it's very alarming, and it has an effect.” A free press “requires journalists that are able to do their job without interference from their corporate parents. We are not seeing that today because of the actions of this administration, and it is so dangerous.”
Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., said congressional Democrats are concerned that Trump could ignore Supreme Court rulings against his administration. “That is our biggest fear, because the judicial system doesn't have a way to enforce their rules.” He said that if Democrats regain control of Congress, they will exercise their oversight powers on Trump’s agencies. “We will bring them in, and we will ask these tough questions.” Ruiz could chair the House Oversight and Investigations Committee in the next Congress if there is a Democratic majority, he said.
Panelist Gabriel Lerner, former editor of Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion, said U.S. journalists can still report the truth, but he doesn’t know how long that will be so. He compared those who say the U.S. can’t slide into fascism to passengers dancing on the deck of the Titanic. Trump is ruling by “edicts and decrees” while increasingly treating Congress as a “rubber stamp,” Lerner said. “So who's going to complain if, in the future, one of the edicts dissolves Congress?” he asked. “We are living in a sustained campaign to intimidate, manipulate and muzzle the institutions that hold power accountable.”
University of California, Los Angeles, professor Safiya Noble said the administration's efforts against diversity programs have created a situation where “journalists, lawyers and researchers of all stripes now have keywords they cannot use.” Efforts to study or report on issues related to diversity and climate change risk attracting funding threats or worse, she said. “If we cannot talk about social problems because the words that are associated with social problems are also illegal, then we have to really understand what kind of collapse that is creating and will continue to create for our society.”