Chairman Brendan Carr admits the FCC is a slave to Trump despite advertising it as an “independent” agency online
After proudly branding itself “independent” on its own website, the FCC just tripped over semantics at this week’s oversight hearing. Under pressure from Sen. Luján, Chairman Brendan Carr admitted that the commission works on Trump’s orders, not for the public.
For years, the Federal Communications Commission has marketed itself as an “independent U.S. government agency.” The phrase was displayed prominently on its own website and repeated often enough to sound like a settled fact. But on Thursday, during a Senate Oversight hearing, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr quietly embarrassingly blew that claim up.
When Senator Ben Ray Luján asked Carr whether the FCC is an independent agency, Carr tried to sidestep it. He invoked “tests in the law” and legal frameworks instead of answering with a yes or no. But Luján cut him off. “Yes or no, Brendan?” But Carr stalled again. The senator then boxed the Chairman by reading out the FCC website’s homepage, and Carr finally had to give in.
Just so you know, Brendan, on your website, it just simply says the FCC is independent. This isn’t a trick question.
To this, Carr finally admitted, “It’s not. It’s not an independent agency.” Carr then read him the FCC’s homepage, which describes the agency as “an independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress.” When asked whether that statement was factual or a lie, Carr hedged again.
The Senator then pressed him on whether the website is lying to the public, to which he said, “Possibly.” Carr then repeated that the FCC is “not formally an independent agency.” In other words, the FCC’s self-propagated public-facing description is inaccurate, and its chairman just admitted it out loud. His fellow Republican appointee and Commissioner, Olivia Trusty, backed Carr and her reasoning hinged on presidential control.
According to her, the FCC commissioners lack for-cause removal protections and can be fired by the president. Hence, the agency does not meet the legal standard for independence. “We do not have for-cause removal protections,” she said plainly. “Which means that we aren’t independent.” With that, two of the FCC heads confirmed that they serve at the president’s pleasure.
When Luján asked Trusty about the website, she claimed not to have seen it. But he clapped back,
You all are the commissioners in charge of this place, right? So this stuff has to be approved by one of you. If this is lying, then you should just fix it. Let me just say that. That wasn’t even my gotcha question. I’m surprised that I’ve burned up three minutes talking about this damn thing.
So, a federal regulatory agency just acknowledged, on the record, that it answers directly to the White House. All while still advertising itself to the public as autonomous. However, the sole Democratic Commissioner on the FCC board, Anna Gomez, didn’t admit it. When Luján asked her for a yes or no about the agency’s independence, she replied, “Yes, and we should be.”
At this point, Luján let out his frustration. He formally entered a printout of the FCC’s homepage into the record and told the commissioners to fix it. Carr agreed “without objection,” which was only a tactic for damage control and had nothing to do with transparency. Half an hour later, the website was edited to describe the FCC as “A US government agency overseen by Congress.” (via PC Mag)
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