Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr suggested on Wednesday that the agency is not independent from President Trump’s administration after being pressed by Senators on Capitol Hill about who he answers to as chair of the commission.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) repeatedly pressed Carr about his agency’s obligation to conduct oversight of major media companies without consideration for how top administration officials or President Trump feel about certain content.
Luján noted that on the FCC website, the department called itself an “independent government agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.”
“Congress did not include for cause removal in the Communications Act,” Carr responded. “So formally speaking the FCC is not independent.”
The FCC’s website was changed on Wednesday to remove the word “independent” from its “About” section after Luján’s questioning.
The communications chief later told lawmakers that Trump has the right to appoint FCC commissioners as he sees fit and declined to say whether he should oversee changes to policy and regulations regardless of the president’s stated positions on issues relating to the media.
Trump has repeatedly attacked mainstream media outlets over news coverage he does not agree with and threatened to use the power of the FCC to scrutinize the broadcast licenses of major networks.
Carr on Wednesday told lawmakers broadcasters who use the public airwaves have an obligation to put forth content that serves “the public interest” and argued companies who serve that purpose “are not at risk” of facing scrutiny from the administration.