Power Grab/Fire anyone who can stop him
The FCC chairman tells the Senate the agency is “not independent,” and its website drops the word that day
Brendan Carr said at a December 17, 2025 hearing that the president can remove commissioners without cause.
What happened
At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on December 17, 2025, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the FCC is not an independent agency, formally speaking, because the president can remove commissioners without cause. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan had read the FCC’s online mission statement describing it as an independent U.S. government agency and asked whether that was true.
Within hours, the word “independent” was removed from the mission statement on fcc.gov. Carr had told the Senate the website was possibly wrong. Carr had told the senators that the website was possibly wrong about the FCC’s status. The edit followed the hearing the same day, on December 17, 2025.
Carr had called the FCC an independent, expert agency in 2021 and 2022. Commissioner Anna Gomez said no website edit could erase Congress’s intent to create an independent regulator. Commissioner Anna Gomez said no website edit could erase Congress’s intent to create an independent regulator, so the disagreement is on the record.
Who benefited
The president gains an FCC that its own chairman says he can control through removal without cause. The agency’s public description now matches the chairman’s reading of the law. The agency’s public description now matches the chairman’s reading of the law, which is that the president can remove commissioners without cause.
Who wanted something
Carr’s answer, and the website edit within hours, aligned the FCC’s public description with the view that commissioners serve at the president’s pleasure. He had taken the opposite position in 2021 and 2022. Commissioner Gomez said no website edit could erase Congress’s intent. Carr’s position at the hearing was the reverse of his own statements in 2021 and 2022.
Who lost out
Congress’s design of the FCC as an independent regulator lost its public description, and Commissioner Gomez said no website edit could erase the intent. Gomez is a commissioner who holds her seat by that design, and she said so on the record.
Why it matters
The chairman of the FCC told the Senate the president can remove commissioners without cause, and the agency changed its website the same day. Carr had called the agency independent and expert in 2021 and 2022.
Sources Senate Commerce Committee (GovInfo) (primary)Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (primary)AxiosNBC News