Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has asked the FCC’s only Democratic commissioner whether the agency could legally operate with three Republicans and no Democrats, saying he reads the Communications Act as barring that setup and rendering any actions by such a panel legally ineffective.
In a September 24 letter to Commissioner Anna Gomez, Wyden said speculation is growing that she could be removed if a third Republican is seated. President Trump nominated Danielle Thumann Severs, senior counsel to Chairman Brendan Carr, in August. The Senate Commerce Committee has not yet considered the nomination. If confirmed, Severs would join Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, leaving Gomez as the sole Democrat.
Wyden’s reading rests on amendments that replaced a fixed cap on same-party commissioners with a formula limiting any one party to the smallest number that constitutes a majority of the commission’s full membership. He argues “full membership” means sitting commissioners, so a three-member FCC could include no more than two from one party.
He wrote that a 3-0 Republican FCC would put thousands of routine actions taken under delegated authority—license renewals, equipment certifications, spectrum transfers, and similar decisions—under a cloud of legal uncertainty. The U.S. communications sector, he noted, represents hundreds of billions of dollars in economic value and depends on the validity of those actions. Citing the Supreme Court’s 2010 holding that the National Labor Relations Board could not use delegation to evade a statutory quorum requirement, Wyden said the same limit would apply to the FCC.