Simington Pushes for FCC Enforcement Reform in Latest Op-Ed
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington wants the agency to immediately begin “a top-to-bottom review” of its enforcement process and foster an internal culture of “legal humility over expansive power,” he said in an op-ed published Wednesday in The Hill. Like the others in Simington’s recent blitz of opinion columns (see 2505090068 and 2505130050), the op-ed was credited to both Simington and his Chief of Staff Gavin Wax. Simington and Wax said the agency needs to reform its enforcement procedures to account for U.S. Supreme Court rulings such as Jarkesy v. SEC, which courts have interpreted as rendering the FCC’s ability to assess monetary forfeitures unconstitutional (see 2504180021). Simington previously vowed to dissent from all monetary forfeiture votes until the agency reviews its enforcement powers (see 2409060054).
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has said he believes the FCC’s enforcement authority remains intact (see 2504280038). If the agency “doesn’t want to find itself repeatedly on the losing end” of court rulings, “it must act now to modernize its enforcement processes and recommit to our foundational principles of due process and statutory fidelity,” said Simington and Wax. To do so, the FCC should examine whether its current enforcement policies comply with the law and congressional intent. “The courts have little patience left for creative agency readings of the law,” said the op-ed. “Agencies should not be in the business of stretching the law to fit their policy preferences. That’s Congress’s job.” The FCC is “facing a constitutional correction in administrative law.”