The Senate Commerce Committee has postponed this week’s confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s FCC nominee Danielle Thumann Severs after she gave birth, delaying the next step toward filling one of the agency’s two vacant seats.
The panel had been set to hear Severs on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. in the Russell Senate Office Building, alongside Department of Transportation nominee Leslie Becera. Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced the hearing last Friday.
An official familiar with the matter said Severs is on maternity leave and that the hearing will be rescheduled after her leave ends. As of Tuesday, no new date had been set.
The postponement is a scheduling delay, not a sign of trouble with the nomination itself. Trump formally sent Severs’ name to the Senate on Aug. 7 for a five-year FCC term dating from July 1, 2024. She would take the Republican seat last held by Nathan Simington.
If confirmed, she would expand the FCC’s Republican majority from 2-1 to 3-1, giving Chairman Brendan Carr a quorum without Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez. Severs is senior counsel to Carr and advises him on work before the Wireline Competition Bureau, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau.
A coalition including NATE, NCTA, NTCA, the Wireless Infrastructure Association and the Fiber Broadband Association told Cruz and ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that Severs has the FCC experience and infrastructure background to help advance broadband deployment, consumer protection and public-safety work. Democrats have taken a different view.
Cantwell and other Democrats have said they want any new Republican FCC nominee paired with a Democratic pick, a long-standing practice Trump has so far declined to follow. Congressional Hispanic Caucus leaders have also asked Senate Republicans not to advance a GOP commissioner without a Democratic counterpart, including Gomez. The nomination remains pending before the Commerce Committee.