The Senate Commerce Committee advanced White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director nominee Michael Kratsios and FTC nominee Mark Meador on Wednesday, with some panel Democrats joining all Republicans in supporting President Donald Trump’s picks. Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell of Washington and seven other Democrats voted against Meador. Cantwell noted that Meador “hedged” in his responses to questions from her and other Democrats about whether he would “refuse to carry out illegal orders from” Trump. “The answer from any nominee should simply be ‘no,’” she said: “I just don’t believe today that [Meador] is the right person for the FTC. We need somebody who believes that they’re not just a rubber stamp for the president, but have responsibilities and duties to carry out.”
The Trump administration is eyeing an expedited review of federal spectrum holdings to identify bands that GOP lawmakers could mandate for reallocation in a coming budget reconciliation package, a former Commerce Department official and communications sector lobbyists told us. Telecom-focused congressional leaders indicated some progress in Capitol Hill negotiations to reach a spectrum reconciliation deal but cautioned that there has been no major breakthrough. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and congressional DOD supporters remain at loggerheads.
Sean Conway, ex-NTIA, rejoins Akin as a partner in its telecom, media and technology practice ... FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson names Jon Schweppe, formerly American Principles Project, as his senior policy adviser ... Center for Democracy & Technology taps Karen Kornbluh, ex-White House, as a visiting fellow ... Teleste appoints Guy McCormick, formerly Cox Communications, to its broadband networks advisory board.
The Senate Commerce Committee was eyeing a March 13 confirmation hearing for NTIA nominee Arielle Roth and potentially also FCC nominee Olivia Trusty, but that panel wasn’t final as of Thursday afternoon, several communications sector officials and lobbyists told us. President Donald Trump nominated Roth, Senate Commerce Republicans’ telecom policy director, in early February (see 2502040056). Trump picked Trusty, a Senate Armed Services Committee Republican staffer, for the FCC seat that former Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel vacated Jan. 20 (see 2501160077).
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett are likely the key votes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers Humphrey’s Executor, the 1935 decision that allows Congress to limit a president’s ability to remove senior officials, TechFreedom Internet Policy Counsel Corbin Barthold wrote Tuesday in The Bulwark. “For as long as modern conservative legal thought has existed, there has been a campaign to overturn Humphrey’s Executor,” Barthold wrote. “The decision, which sustained a provision that insulated the five leaders of the [FTC] from being removed without cause, became the foundation for so-called independent agencies,” but it’s not “a strong decision,” he said. President Franklin Roosevelt saw it as “an effort to rebuke him” by a then-conservative SCOTUS, and “modern legal scholars tend to agree.”
The antitrust policies of President Donald Trump's second administration continue to take shape, though it's expected that the FTC and DOJ will be less aggressive in rejecting mergers compared with Joe Biden's administration, experts said Tuesday during an Information Technology and Innovation Foundation webinar.
The status of the FTC's "click to cancel" rule, which is being challenged by NCTA and others before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2411220029), is unclear under the new presidential administration, Venable wrote this week. New FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson voted against the rule when it was originally promulgated, and arguments that Commissioner Melissa Holyoak made in her dissent were seemingly echoed in the petitioners' brief before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, according to Venable. President Donald Trump's executive order requiring regulatory agency leaders to assess rules for potential rescission or modification "add[s] to the uncertainty of the rule's future," it said.
Free Press co-CEOs Jessica Gonzalez and Craig Aaron urged the Senate Commerce Committee to "refuse to ratify" President Donald Trump's FTC and FCC picks ahead of a Tuesday hearing with FTC nominee Mark Meador, a former staffer for Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and FCC nominee Olivia Trusty, who was an aide to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss. Gonzalez and Aaron said in a Monday blog that the committee should not act "unless and until the Trump administration reverses course, guarantees the independence of expert agencies, disavows any plans to remove sitting commissioners, and respects the separation of powers." They also urged the Senate Commerce Committee to "haul in" FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson to "answer for their actions before giving them even more power to abuse." The Trump administration is "threatening to remove sitting commissioners without cause, slashing budgets with abandon, and sacking staff without authority or due process," the co-CEOs said. "It’s a brazen abuse of executive power designed to settle political scores and undermine the long history of bipartisan deliberation and debate that informs decision-making at these essential agencies."
FCC staff on Saturday received the same email that most federal employees did from the Office of Personnel Management, asking them to justify their work, but it was unclear Monday how or if FCC staff would respond. The FCC didn’t comment Monday. The leaders of unions that represent federal employees slammed the email. President Donald Trump said Monday he supports the effort.
The outlook is uncertain about whether President Donald Trump will attempt to fire Democratic members of the FCC, as the administration asserts its authority over “so-called independent” agencies (see 2502190073). It’s unclear whether the FCC and its Democratic members, Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks, are in Trump’s sights, but no one is taking anything for granted from the current administration, industry experts said. Gomez is emerging as the more outspoken critic of the regime under Chairman Brendan Carr, especially on media items (see 2502200023).