Carr Poised for FCC Chairman's Job After Trump Victory

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr is in prime position to take over the commission’s chairmanship in January following former President Donald Trump’s election to a second term, giving him leeway to make potentially sweeping changes on a range of high-profile communications policy matters, lawyers and other observers said in interviews Wednesday. Carr’s agenda if he becomes chairman is likely to mirror elements of the FCC chapter he wrote for the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy agenda (see 2407050015), but he may need to delay non-bipartisan actions until the Senate can confirm a Republican nominee to fill current Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel’s seat if she resigns, as is tradition, observers told us.

Republican FTC Commissioners Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson are both likely candidates to serve as that agency's chair in a Trump administration, ex-officials said. Former White House and FTC officials told us in October that Abigail Slater, an economic adviser to Vice President-elect JD Vance, is also in contention to lead the commission (see 2410160030). Slater advised the first Trump administration on tech and telecom policy and had previous stints at the FTC, Fox, Roku and the Internet Association.

Rosenworcel was silent Wednesday about her plans. Her current term expires June 30, but she can technically remain on the commission until the beginning of January 2027 absent confirmation of a nominee for her seat. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., urged Rosenworcel Wednesday to stand down from working on controversial matters during the transition from President Joe Biden to Trump (see 2411060043).

Multiple potential Republican candidates to fill Rosenworcel’s seat were already circulating Wednesday. They include former Trump administration acting NTIA Administrator Diane Rinaldo; Wiley’s Tom Johnson, a former FCC general counsel under former Chairman Ajit Pai; Office of Economics and Analytics Chief Giulia McHenry; and ex-FCC Chief Economist Michelle Connolly. Others in contention: Simington Chief of Staff Erin Boone; Samsung Senior Director-Government Relations Kelsey Guyselman Conradi, a former Senate Commerce GOP aide; Arielle Roth, telecom policy director for Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and Senate Armed Services Committee staffer Olivia Trusty.

Former FTC officials told us Mark Meador, a former antitrust aide to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah., is a potential candidate to be the third Republican on that commission. James Lloyd, an antitrust litigator with the office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), was in consideration for an FTC seat when Republicans chose Holyoak and Ferguson during the Biden administration, officials told us.

Carr stayed mum Wednesday but continued posting on X about claims NBC violated the FCC’s equal time rule by allowing Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris to appear over the weekend on Saturday Night Live (see 2411040057). Following the Center for American Rights’ Monday complaint against NBC’s station WNBC New York, “I encourage any candidate that does not believe that their Equal Time rights were honored to bring the issue forward to the FCC for our adjudication,” Carr said. Republican Commissioner Nathan Simington encouraged “the losing candidate to concede so that we may have a peaceful transition of power.” Harris conceded Wednesday afternoon.

'Odds-On Favorite'

Dickinson Wright’s Lee Petro, a former FCBA president, said he “would be very surprised" if Carr was not chairman when Trump takes office Jan. 20, given observers have long expected such a move (see 2407120002). Several other officials also see Carr as all but certain to become FCC chair. Cooley’s Robert McDowell, a former Republican commissioner, called Carr “the odds-on favorite.” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld believes Carr will likely to at least become interim chair and the Senate majority will give Trump “easy confirmation” of whomever he wants as a third Republican.

Carr has “certainly been positioning himself” to become FCC chairman, including on social media and in the Project 2025 chapter, Petro said. The Office of Government Ethics in October closed out House Democrats’ requested probe of whether Carr’s authorship of the Project 2025 chapter ran afoul of federal rules (see 2407170061). It found “insufficient evidence” that the activity “violated the misuse of position rules” for federal officials.

Deregulating and rolling back recent FCC actions are likely to be priorities for a new Republican chair, said Strand Consult Executive Vice President Roslyn Layton, who served on the transition team after Trump’s first White House win. Industry attorneys expect opponents of controversial items the FCC approves in the next two months will seek petitions for reconsideration that the next Trump administration can easily take up. Congress could also roll them back via CRA resolutions, the lawyers said. Layton said data breach reporting could be an obvious target for a new administration looking to cancel the current FCC's work.

Layton said she expects the Trump administration will roll out deregulatory actions quickly and get congressional support. “When I look at 2016 with the Republican Congress and Trump, it's like it's a totally different world,” she said. “You have [House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.], standing on the stage with Trump” at the president-elect’s victory party. Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., “didn't want to get within a 10-foot pole of Trump in 2016,” Layton said: “On Jan. 20, we have a Republican government ready to hit the ground running with tax cuts, deficits, fiscal issues, securing the border.” FCC issues are unlikely in the new administration’s lead priorities, “but they’ll get there,” she said.

There aren't “nearly as many Democratic FCC initiatives for the next FCC to reverse as there were in 2017, given how long it took to get a Democratic majority,” Feld said. “With both” the FCC's digital discrimination rules and reclassification of broadband as a Communications Act Title II service “in hostile courts, it's unclear Carr would have to take any action on those.”