Senate Confirmation of Roth, Trusty Seen as Likelier After July Fourth Recess
Senate leaders may still try to hold votes on Republican FCC nominee Olivia Trusty and NTIA administrator nominee Arielle Roth in late June, shortly before the upper chamber breaks for the week leading up to the July Fourth holiday, but lobbyists now believe both confirmations are more likely to happen in the lead-up to the August recess. Lobbyists told us that Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks’ pledge last week to resign before the agency's June 26 meeting (see 2505220043) is easing Republicans’ pressure to expedite Trusty’s confirmation because the GOP will gain a majority even without her taking office.
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Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us just before the chamber's weeklong Memorial Day recess that he remains “hopeful that we will move expeditiously [on Roth and Trusty], but I don’t have a specific date” for their confirmations. A few days earlier, Cruz told us he was pushing for both votes before the Senate finished its May work period. He previously reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., that Roth would “go to the floor first,” followed by Trusty, a former senior FCC official told us.
Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., separately told us they weren't sure why the Roth and Trusty votes hadn't happened yet, given that the GOP holds a 53-47 majority. “They have the votes” to confirm both nominees whenever Republican leaders want, Lujan said, since they're likely to get unanimous support from the Senate GOP caucus. He suggested there may be a slowdown because of rising Democratic resistance to fast-tracking any of President Donald Trump’s nominees without pairing minority party nominees to agencies like the FCC.
Lobbyists said a shift in Senate GOP priorities is the bigger reason for the slowing confirmation processes, as Democrats’ opposition to moving Roth and Trusty by unanimous consent was already a baked-in hurdle that the Republicans could clear via cloture vote. Twelve of Senate Commerce’s 13 Democrats voted against Roth in April (see 2504090037). Six backed advancing Trusty earlier this month, but several indicated they would oppose her final confirmation unless the Trump administration commits to picking a party-affiliated candidate to replace Starks (see 2504300047).
Thune already filed cloture on four other Trump nominees for Senate action when the chamber returns next week, but Trusty appears to be a lower GOP priority now because Starks’ departure will result in Republicans holding a 2-1 FCC majority, lobbyists said. The lobbyists said Thune and other Republican leaders are also going to focus on pending legislative priorities in June. They want to move on the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (S-394) and focus on reaching a deal on a budget reconciliation package, since the House passed its version, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR-1), lobbyists said.
Lujan told us he's pessimistic that Trump will make any move to name a Democrat to succeed Starks, saying it wouldn't even surprise him if the president decided to “appoint himself to be on the” FCC and replace Brendan Carr as chairman. Lobbyists who follow Democratic deliberations told us that Senate party leaders haven’t coalesced around a preferred candidate to replace Starks but are already opposed to SpaceX's David Goldman (see 2503180067). Democrats will view anyone affiliated with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as a “hostile nomination,” regardless of that nominee’s past roles, one party-affiliated lobbyist said. Goldman was previously House Communications Subcommittee Democrats’ chief counsel.
Public Knowledge Broadband Policy Director Alisa Valentin told us that her group, along with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and others, were not aware of a timeline for Senate action on Trusty when they asked the Senate last week to delay the nominee's confirmation. Valentin said the groups again asked for the pause (see 2504030067) because of Starks’ long-standing commitment to leave the FCC this spring. The groups want the Senate to stall until the Trump administration commits to keeping the FCC staffed with two members not affiliated with the party of the sitting president (see 2505220043).
Valentin said Public Knowledge's primary concern remains that Trusty’s confirmation would allow Trump to fire Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, since a third FCC Republican would allow the commission to meet its statutory quorum requirement even without her. “Our duty in this moment as advocates is to call out” Trump’s abuse of power in firing Democratic commissioners from the FTC and other agencies, Valentin said. “It’s really important [that Schumer and other Democratic leaders] be strategic and apply pressure on [Thune and the Trump administration] to not upend the norms of the FCC’s bipartisan nature.”