Key facts
- Cruz announced a November 10 nomination hearing for Danielle Thumann Severs, Trump's FCC nominee.
- Confirming Thumann Severs would give Republicans a 3-1 FCC majority, per the report.
- Trump has not nominated a Democrat to the other empty FCC seat or renominated Anna Gomez.
- Twenty-one House Commerce Committee Democrats urged Cruz and Thune to pair Republican and Democratic nominees.
- Wyden wrote that an all-Republican FCC's licensing and other delegated actions would be legally defective.
- Gomez's term expired June 30; US law lets her serve until the end of 2027 or a replacement is confirmed.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) announced a November 10 nomination hearing for Trump's FCC nominee, Danielle Thumann Severs, the day before Democrats take over control of the Senate in January 2027, Ars Technica reported on November 4, 2026. Cruz chairs the Senate Commerce Committee and has two months left in the role.
Confirming Thumann Severs would give Republicans a 3-1 advantage on the Federal Communications Commission. That could become 3-0 at the end of 2027, the report said, because FCC Democrat Anna Gomez would have to leave the commission at that time if Trump does not agree to renominate her.
Trump has not nominated a Democrat to the other empty FCC seat and has not renominated Gomez. By tradition, presidents nominate opposing-party commissioners on the recommendation of the opposing party's Senate leaders. Thumann Severs is an attorney and senior counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr; Trump nominated her in August, and a September hearing was postponed for her maternity leave.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) warned in a September 24 letter to Gomez that federal law prohibits an all-Republican FCC. "Under an all-Republican commission, every single license renewal, equipment certification, spectrum transfer, or other delegated action would be legally defective, casting a cloud of crippling legal uncertainty over the entire communications industry," Wyden wrote.
Twenty-one Democratic lawmakers on the House Commerce Committee wrote to Cruz and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) in the week before November 4, urging that any new Republican nominee be paired with a Democratic nominee, including Gomez's renomination. Gomez said in a November 4 statement that Congress should fill the empty seats in a bipartisan manner. "We must rebuild public trust in the FCC by returning the public interest standard to its original meaning as an obligation to communities rather than a tool for political pressure," she said.
The Communications Act requires three members for a quorum and caps how many commissioners may come from one party. Gomez's term expired on June 30, but US law lets her serve until the end of 2027 or until the Senate confirms a replacement. Thumann Severs would fill a different seat, with a term expiring in 2029. The report compared a lame-duck confirmation to the December 2020 vote on Trump nominee Nathan Simington, which left the FCC deadlocked 2-2 at the start of Biden's term until Gomez was confirmed in September 2023.