Senate confirms Trump's FCC pick, Olivia Trusty
The Senate confirmed Republican Olivia Trusty to serve on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday, installing another nominee by President Donald Trump and ending the brief lack of quorum at the agency. The vote was 53-45, with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) being the only Democrat to vote in her favor.
Trusty will join Republican Chair Brendan Carr and Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez on the panel, with two seats remaining empty. Trump has yet to select other nominees for the roles. No more than three commissioners on the independent agency are allowed to be from the same party, though Gomez had expressed doubt that Trump may nominate another Democrat to the agency. Former Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington endorsed his chief of staff, Gavin Wax, a MAGA loyalist who once said Trump's return to office would be a 'time for retribution,' after announcing he'd be stepping down from his post.
Trusty was a longtime staffer for Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who previously served as the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC and related issues. Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Monday, she opposed Trusty's confirmation largely due to concern with the Trump administration's actions. 'Although I respect the nominee's professional background, when I spoke in support of Ms. Trusty's nomination in Committee on April 30, I explained that my support was not absolute,' Cantwell wrote. 'Since then, the Trump Administration has pursued a series of concerning policies, leading me to oppose Ms. Trusty's nomination.'
Cantwell said she's concerned that Trusty's nomination was not paired with a Democratic one, which would be 'consistent with longstanding practice,' she wrote. She pointed to Trump's attempted firing of two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission, another agency created to be independent from the president and whose commissioners the Supreme Court has said cannot be fired without cause. 'I remain seriously concerned that this Administration will try to illegally terminate Democratic Commissioner Anna Gomez, refuse to nominate any Democratic replacements, and then operate the Commission on a strictly partisan basis,' Cantwell wrote.
'These are not normal times'
Trusty's confirmation gives Carr a 2-1 Republican majority to carry out his agenda, including slashing agency regulations and pursuing action against media outlets he views as countering the administration. 'I look forward to welcoming Olivia to the Commission as a colleague and advancing an agenda that will deliver great results for the American people,' Carr said in a statement.
Gomez similarly praised Trusty's experience and welcomed her to the panel. 'I have known Olivia for years and have been very impressed with her strong background in communications policy, which will be a great asset to this agency,' Gomez wrote in a statement.
'In normal times, there'd be little reason to oppose the confirmation of a candidate as qualified as Trusty. But these are not normal times.' Matt Wood, VP of policy and general counsel of nonpartisan group Free Press Action, said in a statement. 'Trusty's confirmation gives Carr the majority he needs to radically reshape the media sector in Trump's image, including offering policy favors to large broadcasters in exchange for their unwavering loyalty to the president.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
27 minutes ago
- The Hill
Trump rails against green tax credits in big, beautiful bill
President Trump railed against the green energy tax credits included in his big, beautiful bill in a Truth Social post on Saturday. 'I HATE 'GREEN TAX CREDITS' IN THE GREAT, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL. They are largely a giant SCAM,' Trump posted. His comments come amid a GOP internal debate over the big, beautiful bill on how to roll back former President Biden's green energy tax credits. The Senate is taking a more lenient approach on this topic, while the House voted to 'sledgehammer' the tax credits. This is another point of disagreement that could slow the leadership's ability to meet the July 4 deadline to pass the bill in the Senate. Trump continued by saying he would rather the money be used anywhere else and that 'Windmills, and the rest of this 'JUNK,' are the most expensive and inefficient energy in the world, is destroying the beauty of the environment, and is 10 times more costly than any other energy.' 'None of it works without massive government subsidy (energy should NOT NEED SUBSIDY!). Also, it is almost exclusively made in China!!! It is time to break away, finally, from this craziness!!!' he continued. In August 2022, the Democrat-controlled House passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which included $369 billion for energy security and climate investments. This move underlined the need for domestic, clean energy manufacturing and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. The Senate is debating how to decrease these investments. The text now allows the construction of clean energy infrastructure, such as solar panels and wind farms, to begin this year to receive the full credit amount. Before, when the bill was in the House, it demanded that those projects start only 60 days after the bill passed, essentially leaving no time for new clean energy investments. The Senate is also allowing projects that begin construction in 2026 to receive 60 percent of the credit, in 2027 to receive 20 percent and in 2028 to receive no credits at all. The House version would give no credits at all to projects that did not start producing electricity by 2028. The Senate is still slashing Biden's IRA significantly. Before the bill's passage in the House, some moderate Republicans issued a joint statement claiming that sledgehammering the IRA would 'provoke an energy crisis or cause higher energy bills for working families.' Nevertheless, the bill still moved up to the Senate.
San Francisco Chronicle
32 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
New Texas law will require Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new law that will make the state the nation's largest to attempt to impose such a mandate. The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state. A similar law in Louisiana was blocked when a federal appeals court ruled Friday that it was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that has been challenged in federal court. The Texas measure easily passed in the Republican-controlled state House and Senate in the legislative session that ended June 2. 'The focus of this bill is to look at what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially,' Republican state representative Candy Noble, a co-sponsor of the bill, said when it passed the House. The Ten Commandments laws are among efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools. Texas lawmakers also passed a bill that lets school districts provide students and staff a daily voluntary period of prayer or time to read a religious text during school hours. Texas' law requires public schools to post in classrooms a 16-by-20-inch (41-by-51-centimeter) poster or framed copy of a specific English version of the commandments, even though translations and interpretations vary across denominations, faiths and languages and may differ in homes and houses of worship. Supporters say the Ten Commandments are part of the foundation of the United States' judicial and educational systems and should be displayed. Opponents, including some Christian and other faith leaders, say the Ten Commandments and prayer measures infringe on others' religious freedom. A letter signed this year by dozens of Christian and Jewish faith leaders opposing the bill noted that Texas has thousands of students of other faiths who might have no connection to the Ten Commandments. Texas has nearly 6 million students in about 9,100 public schools. In 2005, Abbott, who was state attorney general at the time, successfully argued before the Supreme Court that Texas could keep a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of its Capitol. Louisiana's law has twice been ruled unconstitutional by federal courts, first by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles and then again by a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which also considers cases from Texas.
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bad ‘vibes' may be having a bigger impact on the economy now
There has been a disconnect in recent years between the so-called soft economic data and the hard data as weak readings on consumer confidence didn't always translate to lower payrolls or GDP. But that may be changing as key buffers that propped up spending are disappearing, according to NerdWallet senior economist Elizabeth Renter. Americans used to say one thing about their feelings on the economy and do something else with their actual dollars. But that may be changing. The disconnect between weak readings on consumer confidence versus solid employment, income and GDP data was previously described as a 'vibecession' by economist Kyla Scanlon, who first used the term in her 2022 Substack post. The last vibecession hit as inflation was at the highest levels in more than 40 years, while an aggressive rate-hiking campaign from the Federal Reserve spiked borrowing costs, making auto loans and mortgages more expensive. But consumers continued to spend as the labor market remained robust. And aside from a brief dip in GDP, the economy avoided a recession. Confidence surveys also increasingly reflected partisan differences more than the actual economy. Fast forward to 2025. Consumer sentiment collapsed after President Donald Trump launched his trade war, and GDP shrank again, skewed by a rush to buy imported goods ahead of higher tariffs. Still, payrolls have held up, and inflation hasn't been as affected by tariffs as feared. But while sentiment recovered a bit after Trump postponed his highest tariff rates, it's still 20% below December 2024 levels. 'Despite this month's notable improvement, consumers remain guarded and concerned about the trajectory of the economy,' the most recent University of Michigan survey said. At the same time, the Trump administration is slashing spending and jobs, with ripple effects reaching contractors and even certain real estate markets. Businesses that are uncertain about the economy and the direction of tariffs have slowed hiring. Student-loan delinquencies are up, and AI is eliminating many entry-level jobs that once went to newly minted college graduates. Then there's oil prices, which have jumped since Israel launched airstrikes on Iran. The cumulative effect is taking a toll. 'I don't think the U.S. consumer has grown numb or blind to the headlines and economic risk—over the past month we've seen some sentiment scores rise slightly, but we have to think about where they were rising from,' Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, said in a note on Friday. 'A little bit better doesn't necessarily mean good, even if it might mean hopeful.' As a result, it's getting harder to dismiss the so-called soft data on the economy and focus instead on the hard data. That's as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has said he and his fellow policymakers won't act on rates until the hard data on unemployment and inflation gives them a clear reason to. But the soft stuff may be leaking into the hard stuff. 'Unlike a few years ago, the 'vibes' now stand to have a greater impact on behavior, and thus the health of the economy,' Renter wrote. 'That's because unlike a few years ago, people don't have the luxury of easily stumbling into a better job or relying on excess savings and debt payment forbearances.' In fact, household debt is rebounding to pre-pandemic levels and beyond, eroding the ability to absorb an unexpected expense or job loss, she added. Bill Adams, chief economist at Comerica Bank, similarly drew a direct line between consumer sentiment and actual spending. Digging into the May retail sales report, he noted that consumers didn't just pull back on durable goods like electronics and cars, which fell after an earlier jump to get ahead of tariffs, they also reined in spending on daily expenses like groceries and restaurants. Spending at building material and garden supply stores also saw big drops, suggesting less residential investment in home improvements. 'With declines visible in unrelated categories, it looks like weak consumer confidence was to blame for the pullback in consumer spending last month,' Adams wrote. This story was originally featured on
