Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is moving to expand the Republican majority on the Federal Communications Commission before Democrats take control of the Senate in January 2027. Cruz has scheduled a November 10 hearing for President Trump’s FCC nominee Daniel Tooman Severs, whose confirmation could give Republicans a 3-1 advantage on the commission and potentially leave it entirely Republican by the end of 2027.
Just before the Republican Party’s midterm defeat, Cruz announced that the Senate Commerce Committee would hold the nomination hearing for Severs on November 10. In his final two months as the committee’s chairman, Cruz appears intent on advancing Severs’ nomination to a vote by the full Senate.
If Severs is confirmed, Republicans would hold an unusual 3-1 majority on the FCC. That could become a 3-0 advantage by the end of 2027 if FCC Democrat Anna Gomez has to leave the commission and President Trump does not agree to nominate her again.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently warned that federal law prohibits an all-Republican FCC and that actions taken by a partisan commission could be overturned in court.
“Based on the statutory history of communications law, actions taken by a partisan FCC can be overturned in court,” Wyden wrote in a September 24 letter to Gomez. “There is speculation that the president intends to fire you once and for all because the communications law requires a quorum of three members,” he wrote, warning that if Severs were approved, an all-Republican 3-0 commission would run the agency.
“Under an all-Republican commission, license renewals, equipment certifications, spectrum transfers, and other mandated actions would all be legally flawed and cast a cloud of devastating legal uncertainty across the communications industry,” Wyden wrote.
Trump has not nominated a Democrat for the other vacancy
All FCC commissioners must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. By tradition, presidents appoint opposition-party commissioners based on recommendations from the opposition party’s Senate leadership.
That bipartisan process has historically helped ensure that the FCC’s composition complies with U.S. law. President Trump has not followed that tradition during his second term, however. He has not nominated a Democrat for the other vacant FCC seat and has not renominated Gomez to continue serving beyond 2027.
Source: arstechnica.com
