Thune Pushing Senate For A Trusty FCC Seating

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Updated at 2pm Eastern


In the modern era, there hasn’t perhaps been a five-year period full of narratives at the FCC that would potentially make a good Soap Opera, should network executives ever desire to use a government agency as the basis of a saucy plot. From a hotly contested and failed nominee for Commissioner from President Biden — offered twice, to no avail — to the sudden resignation of a Commissioner hand-picked by President Trump in his first term, the Federal Communications Commission today is a body with no effective legislative power, as it has just the Chairman and his fierce Democratic challenger.

A leading Republican in the U.S. Senate wants to change this as soon as possible. Yet, his effort could be stopped by Democrats eager to get a second voice on the Commission concurrently.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)

As first reported Friday morning by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S. Dakota) on Thursday evening filed cloture on the nominate of Olivia Trusty to serve out the remainder of former FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

This would fast-track a necessary quorum for the Commission to carry out business, and vote on agenda items at its June 26 Open Commission Meeting.

Rosenworcel’s term ends on June 30. This would resolve the need for a quorum on June 26. But what about after June 30? Thune later on Thursday evening filed cloture on Executive Calendar #99 for Trusty to be a FCC Member from July 1, 2025.

While this would lock in Trusty, the cloture move could rattle Democrats that have largely pledged to oppose any Republican nominee unless a Democratic pick is advanced in tandem.

The pressing need for Trusty to, at the very least, fill out the remaining days of Rosenworcel’s term is the result of what is becoming a more public rift between Chairman Brendan Carr and former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington, a Canada-born technocrat who was nominated by President Trump and succeeded Mike O’Rielly over the latter’s stance on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. 

Simington’s resignation, which came nearly concurrent to the expected departure of Democrat Geoffrey Starks from the Commission, was a surprise. And, it left the FCC unable to vote on anything. For the NAB and broadcast media, this put a freeze on pending deregulatory initiatives including the Re: Delete, Delete, Delete rule modernization plan initiated by Carr, merger reviews (including Skydance Media’s proposed acquisition of National Amusements, Inc.’s stake in CBS News & Stations owner Paramount), and other sweeping policy efforts.

Thune’s filing for cloture came hours after a comprehensive discussion of the FCC’s dysfunctional state at the 2025 Hispanic Radio Conference in Houston.

“There’s no love lost between the two Republicans that were there,” said veteran Washington, D.C. communications attorney Francisco Montero, of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth. “I think they both wanted to be chair … Simington wrote a critical editorial the day after he left, and I think announcing on Wednesday that he’s leaving Friday was a little bit of a ‘go jump in the lake’ move.”

That editorial, a sharply worded feature in RealClearPolicy, delivered a forceful institutional critique of FCC leadership that stopped just short of naming Carr directly. Carr offered no formal farewell following Simington’s resignation, acknowledging it only in passing in a blog post.

Though Trusty has held senior roles in communications policy circles and is generally favored by both Republicans and Democrats, her nomination is now caught in a broader political standoff over FCC control and party balance. Meanwhile, Simington’s recently appointed 31-year-old Chief of Staff, Gavin Wax, is reportedly under serious consideration by President Trump as his replacement. Wax is seen as a strong conservative voice on tech and media policy with close ties to Trump-aligned figures.

— Additional reporting by Cameron Coats, in Houston

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