Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas) has scheduled a vote to confirm Republican FCC Commissioner nominee Danielle Thumann Severs on Nov. 18.
If approved, she will become the fourth commissioner on the FCC, which normally has five. She would give Republicans a 3-1 advantage with Anna Gomez the single Democratic representative on the commission.
Thumann Severs, currently a senior legal advisor to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, testified in a hearing in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday that was contentious at times with accusations from Democratic members of the committee that she was avoiding answering their questions. Although she was one of four nominees that appeared in front of the nearly two hour hearing, about three quarters of the questions were directed to her.
Democratic members of the committee are concerned that a recent decision by the Supreme Court regarding the authority over executive departments could lead President Trump to fire Gomez. They lobbied for Gomez to appear in the same hearing but were denied.
Their concerns were echoed by the Committee to Protect Journalists on Wednesday, who called for bipartisan FCC nominees.
“Americans trust the Federal Communications Commission to act as an independent, bipartisan agency that upholds the First Amendment,” said José Zamora, CPJ’s regional director for the Americas. “The Senate must ensure the FCC upholds that trust by not allowing a partisan nomination to move forward.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, Thumann Severs hesitated to directly address questions from Democratic members of the committee over accusations that FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has overreached his authority towards broadcasters’ first amendment rights.
She responded to those questions by reiterating her commitment to ensure that broadcasters act “in the public interest” but that was not enough for Ed Markey (D-Mass.) who chastised her for not being more direct in her answer.
“This should be a straightforward constitutional limitation because the FCC cannot punish a broadcaster simply because the president doesn't like its coverage,” Markey said. “Yet Chairman Carr, your boss right now, has threatened to do exactly that.”
Cruz has been critical of Carr's call to investigate ABC's broadcast licenses after late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel cracked a joke about Melania Trump during one of his shows earlier this year.
“It is not government’s job to censor speech, and I do not believe the FCC should operate as the speech police,” Cruz told Punchbowl Newsin late April.
During the hearing, Committee chairman Cruz cited the ABC investigation along with numerous instances of Democratic Presidents threatening investigations into broadcasters for airing content they didn’t agree with.
“If you are confirmed, will you commit to basing licensing decisions on the law and the record, and to not using the FCC's authority to pressure or punish a broadcaster for protected speech?” Cruz asked the nominee, to which she replied, “yes.”
