WASHINGTON—In the runup to the Federal Communications Commission’s planned Aug. 6 vote to relax station-ownership rules, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay has published an opinion piece arguing only Congress can change those rules.
In an article published on website The Daily Wire, the former Texas congressman described how Congress ended up putting the 39% ownership cap into the Fiscal Year 2004 Consolidated Appropriations Act and his important role in attaching that provision to the legislation.
That history is important because that provision has already been the focus of arguments over the FCC’s recent proposal to change station ownership rules. While FCC Chair Brendan Carr and the National Association of Broadcasters have asserted the agency’s authority to change the rules, opponents like FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and others have cited that provision as proof only Congress can change the rules.
In the article, DeLay comes down firmly on the side of congressional authority, arguing that regulatory agencies can’t modify laws created by Congress.
“I am a Republican,” he concluded. “I support deregulation and the Trump administration. But my ultimate loyalty rests with the Constitution, which gives certain prerogatives to Congress. Regulatory agencies cannot defy or modify laws enacted by Congress. If Chairman Carr wants to raise the statutory cap, he should ask Congress to pass a law giving him authority to do that.”
DeLay represented Texas’s 22nd Congressional District from 1985 until 2006 and served as House majority leader from 2003 to 2005.
