AmateurRadio.com

With the US election results and the change of power coming in January, the FCC will be changing leadership as well in 2025, potentially affecting amateur radio. While there have been some concerning and shocking nominations for agency leadership positions, like an accused sex-trafficker nominated to lead the Department of Justice, and a TV personality with extremist nationalist ideologies and a settled sexual assault case potentially leading the Pentagon, the choice for FCC leadership is less controversial and scandal-ridden, though equally disruptive.  Current FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has been nominated as FCC Chairman. Carr has been a proponent of new technology like 5G and has often been critical of funding programs. He has frequently been outspoken in his official FCC statements, and unusually vocal for an FCC Commissioner, often with politically-charged and partisan language criticizing current FCC and federal government administration policies and positions.

Carr is a contributor to Project 2025, the 900+ page document often touted as the blueprint for the incoming administration’s overhauling of the federal government, authoring a section on the FCC. Carr opposes Net Neutrality, condemned the FCC’s recent revocation of Elon Musk’s Starlink’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund subsidy, and wants the FCC to get involved in moderation practices at social media companies due to perceived biases against right wing interests. He is very supportive of efforts to auction more spectrum off to wireless carriers.  Carr has also been vocal on topics outside of telecommunications like the World Health Organization, the Department of Homeland Security, and elections, and even accused the House Intelligence Committee chair of overseeing a “secret and partisan surveillance machine”.

What might a Carr FCC administration look like for amateur radio? I found no public record of Carr making specific statements about amateur radio and no mention of amateur radio in Project 2025. As with previous recent FCC Chairmen, I expect that amateur radio will “fly under the radar”. Carr will undoubtedly be apt to make major departmental changes and staffing reductions at the FCC in an effort to gain more fiscal efficiency, possibly affecting amateur radio enforcement and administrative functions. Carr is clearly on the side of wireless carriers when it comes to spectrum, and amateur radio will likely be unsuccessful in opposition to reallocation of amateur frequencies to commercial use, though this is likely with any FCC leadership due to the well-funded and politically connected commercial interests at play today.  Technical and engineering decisions will likely be viewed through fiscal and political lenses rather than scientific.  This isn’t new at the FCC, but slash-and-burn and unabashedly disruptive and politically-charged leadership is.  The best approach for amateur radio will be to continue to stay under the radar at the FCC, lest it be seen as a wireless service that is an historical enigma, benefitting a small subset of citizens with essentially free wireless spectrum.

With the US election results and the change of power coming in January, the FCC will be changing leadership as well in 2025, potentially affecting amateur radio. While there have been some concerning and shocking nominations for agency leadership positions, like an accused sex-trafficker nominated to lead the Department of Justice, and a TV personality with extremist nationalist ideologies and a settled sexual assault case potentially leading the Pentagon, the choice for FCC leadership is less controversial and scandal-ridden, though equally disruptive.  Current FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has been nominated as FCC Chairman. Carr has been a proponent of new technology like 5G and has often been critical of funding programs. He has frequently been outspoken in his official FCC statements, and unusually vocal for an FCC Commissioner, often with politically-charged and partisan language criticizing current FCC and federal government administration policies and positions.

Carr is a contributor to Project 2025, the 900+ page document often touted as the blueprint for the incoming administration’s overhauling of the federal government, authoring a section on the FCC. Carr opposes Net Neutrality, condemned the FCC’s recent revocation of Elon Musk’s Starlink’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund subsidy, and wants the FCC to get involved in moderation practices at social media companies due to perceived biases against right wing interests. He is very supportive of efforts to auction more spectrum off to wireless carriers.  Carr has also been vocal on topics outside of telecommunications like the World Health Organization, the Department of Homeland Security, and elections, and even accused the House Intelligence Committee chair of overseeing a “secret and partisan surveillance machine”.

What might a Carr FCC administration look like for amateur radio? I found no public record of Carr making specific statements about amateur radio and no mention of amateur radio in Project 2025. As with previous recent FCC Chairmen, I expect that amateur radio will “fly under the radar”. Carr will undoubtedly be apt to make major departmental changes and staffing reductions at the FCC in an effort to gain more fiscal efficiency, possibly affecting amateur radio enforcement and administrative functions. Carr is clearly on the side of wireless carriers when it comes to spectrum, and amateur radio will likely be unsuccessful in opposition to reallocation of amateur frequencies to commercial use, though this is likely with any FCC leadership due to the well-funded and politically connected commercial interests at play today.  Technical and engineering decisions will likely be viewed through fiscal and political lenses rather than scientific.  This isn’t new at the FCC, but slash-and-burn and unabashedly disruptive and politically-charged leadership is.  The best approach for amateur radio will be to continue to stay under the radar at the FCC, lest it be seen as a wireless service that is an historical enigma, benefitting a small subset of citizens with essentially free wireless spectrum.