GOP Congress to Employ CRA: Blackburn
FCC rules that went into effect before Aug. 1 are likely insulated from the act.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 12, 2024 – Expect the incoming Republican Congress to use the Congressional Review Act in its effort to roll back regulations, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Thursday.
“You will see this Congress use the Congressional Review Act, and sometimes you’re going to see executive actions,” she said at a Broadband Breakfast public policy event here on the communications agenda of the incoming Trump administration. “We will take a look at what have been misguided telecommunications policies” and policies that “did not deliver.”
The CRA allows Congress to nullify federal agency rules if both chambers adopt a resolution and the president signs off. With a trifecta, Republicans could potentially peel back rules enacted within 60 legislative days of the previous Congress. This happened in 2017 when Congress moved to nix data privacy rules put forward by the Federal Communications Commission.
The Congressional Research Service has estimated the so-called lookback period would go back to Aug. 1, meaning agency rules adopted after that could be vulnerable to reversal from the legislature. On the telecom front, that deadline would make Biden FCC rulemakings that drew the most Republican ire safe from CRA review, including, anti-digital discrimination rules, and updated data breach rules.
It would seem to also insulate the agency’s net neutrality order, which reclassified broadband providers as common carriers and was published in the federal register this past spring. Attorneys at Perkins Coie have speculated the rule could still be undone by Congress because a court order prevented the rules from going into effect.
The digital discrimination and data breach rules are also being challenged by industry groups in court, and, regardless of CRA vulnerability, all three are expected to be rolled back or not enforced under incoming chairman Brendan Carr.
There have been other proposals and efforts at the agency after Aug. 1 that the GOP opposed, like requiring disclosures of AI-generated content in broadcast political ads and inquiries into bulk billing and broadband data caps, but those didn’t translate into adopted rules.
“One thing I can tell you,” Blackburn said, “We are going to address and try to stop the back and forth on net neutrality.”
That would likely come from legislation, but she didn’t offer any details.
Blackburn said it is “an imperative" for Congress to renew the FCC’s authority to auction off spectrum bands to the private sector, which expired in March 2023.
A must-pass defense spending bill that cleared the House yesterday would allow the agency to auction off a single set of airwaves that Dish returned last year in order to fund its Rip and Replace program. The Senate is set to vote next week on the bill.
Broadband Breakfast
