Cruz Has No FCC Hearing Date 'Locked Down' as Democrats Continue to Criticize Carr
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, told us he’s still planning to bring in FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for a hearing before year-end, but Democrats are concerned that he’s slow-walking scheduling that panel amid their ongoing airing of grievances about Carr's tenure leading the commission, particularly actions that critics say targeted the media’s free speech rights. As expected (see 2510280053), Senate Commerce Democrats used Wednesday's hearing on the Biden administration's social media censorship to again raise concerns about Carr’s comments last month against ABC and parent Disney, which were widely perceived as influencing the network’s since-reversed decision to pull Jimmy Kimmel Live!
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In an interview last week, Carr said the timing of any appearance in front of Senate Commerce is entirely “up to them. But I know they’ve got several hearings coming up on the calendar” that could supplant an FCC oversight session. The agency has “gotten several letters and inquiries from Democrats” on the Kimmel incident and other matters, which it has attempted to respond to “on time or effectively on time,” Carr told us. He and Cruz’s office have “been continuing to be coordinated and aligned” on communications policy issues. Cruz had harshly criticized Carr over the Kimmel incident (see 2509190059).
Carr said he's not concerned that Democratic blowback over his Kimmel comments could become the main focus of such a hearing and continued to argue that he wasn’t the impetus for Disney’s decision to temporarily suspend the show. “I think we’ve addressed all the concerns that were raised," he told us. “Local TV station groups, for the first time in probably 20-30 years, made their own business decision to push back and preempt” a national show, which reflects his goal “to empower local TV stations.”
While Cruz told us that he doesn't “know that we have locked down the date” for an FCC oversight hearing featuring Carr and the other commissioners, “it is certainly our intention to bring them before the committee” soon. Lobbyists said Cruz would prefer that Carr testify at a regular FCC hearing rather than on a censorship-focused panel (see 2510030062). Cruz's office had been eyeing potential November dates for that hearing, but the government shutdown and other matters mean it will happen later than anticipated, lobbyists said.
Cruz offered a similarly vague timeline for an FCC oversight hearing during Senate Commerce’s panel Wednesday. “Carr will be here, and each member of this committee on both sides of the aisle will be able to question him on any policies or questions they like.” He complained that during the last Congress under a Democratic majority, Senate Commerce “had precisely zero oversight hearings of the FCC.”
'Playing Politics'
Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., told us they have gotten no firm commitments for a date for the FCC hearing, and they will continue raising concerns about Carr at additional hearings about Biden-era censorship. The matter previously came up during a panel in early October (see 2510080049). Lujan told us he had heard Cruz mention early November as a possibility for the FCC oversight hearing but doesn't know specifics.
At Wednesday's hearing, Democrats countered what they saw as a lopsided focus on GOP claims of Biden-era pressure on social media. “My fundamental question still is, 'Where is Brendan Carr?'” Cantwell said. “This [censorship] hearing isn't serious if it ignores the ongoing corporate [media] consolidation greenlighted by the Trump administration, which is only approving deals that come with a political pro quo.”
Lujan told us it’s hypocritical for Republicans to continue focusing on claims of Biden-era censorship and not simultaneously examine what Carr has been “telling all of these networks” via his Kimmel comments and investigations of major national broadcasters, which started soon after he became chairman in January (see 2501220059). “My Republican colleagues want to” invoke a 2018 letter from Democratic senators asking then-FCC Chairman Ajit Pai to review Sinclair's fitness to maintain its broadcast licenses (see 1804120026) to deflect from Carr’s actions, Lujan said.
“I don't know that anyone should be surprised to see Democrats playing politics,” Cruz told us. “Not a single Democrat on [Senate Commerce] was concerned when the Biden administration was abusing its power,” including by evaluating the Media and Democracy Project's petition against Fox WTXF Philadelphia’s license renewal (see 2411190045). “I'm hopeful that with their newly discovered respect for free speech, we will see some Democrats be willing to join my” upcoming legislation to prevent future instances of secret government censorship campaigns, he said.
Congressional FCC oversight also came up Wednesday during a Center for Democracy & Technology and Stand Together event about online speech (see 2510290035). Public Knowledge President Chris Lewis said Congress’ lack of oversight hearings this year about the FCC or FTC “is especially unacceptable” given the ways that those agencies have used their power to threaten free speech.
Danny Vinik, a policy adviser for Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said Congress needs to step up its oversight of the FCC and FTC. Political pushback against both agencies’ chilling of free speech “will have an impact,” he said. “We just aren’t seeing enough of it on the Hill right now.” He added that Democrats “are strongly on board, [but] we need our Republican counterparts to really step up and join us in this fight.”