New Executive Order Aims to Bring Independent Agencies, Including the FCC, Under Greater Presidential Control

Olivia Trusty, nominee for the open Republican Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) Commissioner position, appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Trusty has significant telecommunications experience on Capitol Hill and is a longtime protégé of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS). She is the Republican staff lead for the Senate Armed Services Committee, working with the Cybersecurity Subcommittee, where she has worked on issues related to spectrum allocated to military and national security uses. She was also a policy director for the Senate Commerce Committee, and specifically worked with the Communications, Media, and Broadband Subcommittee. Additionally, she was previously a legislative assistant to Sen. Wicker, focusing on matters related to communications, technology, innovation and the internet.

On April 7, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC or Commission) released a tentative agenda for its next Open Meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, April 28 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The Commission released public drafts of four items that are expected to be considered at the Open Meeting, which are detailed below:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held its March Open Meeting last Thursday, March 27, during which it voted to adopt the three items discussed in our last blog post and recent client alert: (1) a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) exploring alternatives to Global Positioning Technology (GPS), (2) a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) containing proposals to ensure the reliability and interoperability of Next Generation 911 (NG911) networks, and (3) an FNPRM seeking comment on proposals to strengthen caller location accuracy requirements for wireless calls to 911. The final versions of these documents reflected several changes from the drafts that were circulated in early March, as detailed below:

On March 6, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a tentative agenda for its next Open Meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m. ET. The FCC released public drafts of three of the four items expected to be considered at the Open Meeting:

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), with new FCC Chairman Brendan Carr at the helm, will be holding the agency’s first Open Meeting on Thursday, February 27 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET amidst uncertainties related to independent agencies and presidential power as reflected in a recent Executive Order. The FCC has released an agenda for the meeting, which is available here, along with public drafts of the five new items that will be up for consideration by the FCC:

This Tuesday, Michael Kratsios, who is President Donald Trump’s nominee for Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), will appear before the Senate Commerce Committee for a hearing. During President Trump’s first term, Kratsios served as the chief technology officer for OSTP, a position he was confirmed to with unanimous Senate support. In his prior stint with the administration, Kratsios heavily focused on artificial intelligence (AI) policy, establishing the American AI Initiative and the National AI Initiative Office. Kratsios also supported the White House push to integrate drones in the National Airspace System, and was key in implementing a presidential memorandum in 2017 establishing the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program. Since leaving office in 2021, Kratsios has been at Scale AI, a data management company.

On February 18, 2025, President Trump issued a new Executive Order (EO) titled “Ensuring Accountability for All Agencies,” which attempts to expand presidential authority over heretofore independent regulatory agencies, including the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Independent agencies are typically delegated authority over a particular subject matter area by Congress via statute. Independent agencies are often delegated jurisdiction over issues, telecommunications being one of them, that are deemed too technical or complex to be effectively regulated by Congress through specific laws. Unlike executive agencies, which are overseen by a single agency head appointed by the President, independent agencies are typically led by a commission or board of multiple members—often with staggered terms and subject to statutory bipartisan membership requirements—who are nominated by the President and subject to Senate confirmation. In the past, this structure—paired with the President’s limited authority to remove members of the board or the FCC for specific reasons—has insulated independent agencies from executive branch control.

President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) titled, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” is the administration’s first step to pursue the President’s content moderation goals for broadcast outlets and social media. President Trump has made clear his view that fact-checking by online platforms and broadcasters interferes with free speech. The purpose of this Executive Order is set forth in Section 1: