Tom DeLay helped create TV ownership cap—he says Trump FCC has no authority to repeal it
Tom DeLay helped create TV ownership cap—he says Trump FCC has no authority to repeal it
汤姆·迪莱曾参与制定电视所有权上限——他表示特朗普政府时期的联邦通信委员会无权废除该规定
Tom DeLay, the Texas Republican who was House majority leader from 2003 to 2005, said the Federal Communications Commission has no legal authority to repeal the National Television Ownership Rule. Despite DeLay’s warning, the Trump FCC appears ready to eliminate the rule at its meeting this week. 曾于2003年至2005年担任众议院多数党领袖的得克萨斯州共和党人汤姆·迪莱（Tom DeLay）表示，联邦通信委员会（FCC）没有法律权限废除《全国电视所有权规则》。尽管迪莱发出了警告，但特朗普政府时期的FCC似乎准备在本周的会议上取消该规则。
DeLay wrote an op-ed describing how he helped write the law that prohibited any single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. DeLay said that only Congress, not the Trump FCC, can change the cap because the 39 percent limit is specified in US law and wasn’t chosen by the commission. 迪莱在一篇评论文章中描述了他如何参与起草了这项法律，该法律禁止任何单一广播电台所有者覆盖超过美国所有电视家庭39%的份额。迪莱指出，只有国会而非特朗普政府时期的FCC才有权更改这一上限，因为39%的限制是美国法律明确规定的，并非由委员会自行决定。
DeLay gave his view in an op-ed for The Daily Wire yesterday, less than three weeks after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced a plan to eliminate the cap. The FCC is scheduled to vote on Carr’s proposal on Thursday. 迪莱昨日在《每日连线》（The Daily Wire）发表评论文章表达了他的观点，此时距离FCC主席布伦丹·卡尔（Brendan Carr）宣布取消该上限的计划还不到三周。FCC定于周四对卡尔的提案进行投票。
“I am a Republican,” DeLay wrote. “I support deregulation and the Trump administration. But my ultimate loyalty rests with the Constitution, which gives certain prerogatives to Congress. Regulatory agencies cannot defy or modify laws enacted by Congress. If Chairman Carr wants to raise the statutory cap, he should ask Congress to pass a law giving him authority to do that.” “我是一名共和党人，”迪莱写道，“我支持放松管制和特朗普政府。但我的最终忠诚在于宪法，宪法赋予了国会特定的特权。监管机构不能违抗或修改国会制定的法律。如果卡尔主席想要提高法定上限，他应该请求国会通过一项法律，授予他这样做的权力。”
DeLay left his post as majority leader in September 2005 and resigned from Congress in 2006 after being indicted on money laundering and conspiracy charges stemming from a campaign finance scheme. He was convicted by a jury in 2010, but the conviction was overturned by a Texas appeals court in 2013. 迪莱于2005年9月卸任多数党领袖，并于2006年因涉及竞选财务计划的洗钱和共谋指控被起诉后辞去国会议员职务。他曾于2010年被陪审团定罪，但该判决在2013年被得克萨斯州上诉法院推翻。
Carr would be first to test whether FCC can kill cap
卡尔将首次测试FCC是否有权废除上限
The TV ownership cap was originally implemented by the FCC and changed several times before Congress directed the FCC to set it at its current level of 39 percent. The FCC first used its authority to implement a 25 percent nationwide audience reach cap in 1985. In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress directed the FCC to amend its rules to increase the cap to 35 percent. 电视所有权上限最初由FCC实施，并经过多次修改，直到国会指示FCC将其设定为目前的39%。FCC于1985年首次行使权力，实施了25%的全国观众覆盖上限。在1996年的《电信法》中，国会指示FCC修改规则，将上限提高到35%。
Congress acted again after the FCC decided in 2003 to raise the limit from 35 percent to 45 percent. The FCC’s 2003 change was controversial, and Congress overrode the FCC decision in January 2004 with a provision inserted into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004. Specifically, Congress amended the Telecommunications Act to require the FCC to enforce a cap of 39 percent. The law change also said the FCC cannot repeal or modify the cap during its quadrennial reviews of media rules. 在FCC于2003年决定将限制从35%提高到45%后，国会再次采取了行动。FCC 2003年的这一变动引发了争议，国会于2004年1月通过在《2004年综合拨款法案》中加入条款，推翻了FCC的决定。具体而言，国会修订了《电信法》，要求FCC执行39%的上限。法律变更还规定，FCC在进行四年一度的媒体规则审查期间，不得废除或修改该上限。
Both Democratic and Republican FCC leaders have asserted authority to change the cap. Under Democratic Chairman Tom Wheeler, the Obama-era FCC concluded in 2016 that “the Commission has the authority to modify the national audience reach cap” as long as it doesn’t do so during the quadrennial review. The Wheeler FCC ended up repealing a rule related to the cap, but that decision was reversed by the FCC the next year, during the first Trump administration. 民主党和共和党籍的FCC领导人都曾声称有权更改该上限。在民主党主席汤姆·惠勒（Tom Wheeler）的领导下，奥巴马政府时期的FCC在2016年得出结论，认为只要不在四年一度的审查期间进行，委员会就有权修改全国观众覆盖上限。惠勒领导的FCC最终废除了一项与该上限相关的规则，但该决定在次年特朗普第一任期内被FCC推翻。
The 39 percent cap has thus survived for over two decades, but Carr scheduled an FCC vote to repeal the 39 percent limit and replace it with a “case-by-case review” of each proposed merger. This would make it easier for the FCC to pick and choose which station groups get to expand, potentially helping Carr achieve his goal of securing more positive news coverage for President Trump. 因此，39%的上限已经存在了二十多年，但卡尔安排了一次FCC投票，旨在废除这一限制，并以针对每项拟议合并的“个案审查”取而代之。这将使FCC更容易挑选哪些广播集团可以扩张，从而可能帮助卡尔实现为特朗普总统争取更多正面新闻报道的目标。
Carr already seems to be using the case-by-case approach even though his FCC hasn’t formally adopted it yet. In March, the FCC granted a waiver letting Nexstar Media Group buy Tegna in a deal that let it reach over half of TV households. 尽管卡尔领导的FCC尚未正式采纳，但他似乎已经在采用这种个案审查方式。今年3月，FCC批准了一项豁免，允许Nexstar媒体集团收购Tegna，这笔交易使其覆盖了超过一半的电视家庭。
The Wheeler FCC issued similar legal conclusions about the FCC’s authority to change the cap, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Carr would beat challenges in court. Carr would be the first FCC chairman to test whether the agency can eliminate the cap entirely. He may have to show that the FCC has explicit authority to remove the cap in light of a 2024 Supreme Court ruling that sharply narrowed the leeway federal agencies are given to interpret ambiguous laws. 惠勒领导的FCC曾就FCC更改上限的权力得出过类似的法律结论，但这并不一定意味着卡尔能在法庭挑战中胜出。卡尔将成为第一位测试该机构是否能完全废除上限的FCC主席。鉴于2024年最高法院的一项裁决大幅缩小了联邦机构解释模糊法律的余地，他可能必须证明FCC拥有明确的权力来取消该上限。
DeLay explains how Congress decided on 39% cap
迪莱解释国会如何决定39%的上限
Courts reviewing whether an agency decision is lawful often try to determine what members of Congress intended when they passed a law, particularly when the law is vague. According to DeLay, the intent of Congress was clear when it mandated the 39 percent cap. 法院在审查机构决策是否合法时，通常会试图确定国会议员在通过法律时的意图，特别是在法律含糊不清的情况下。据迪莱称，国会在强制规定39%上限时，其意图是非常明确的。
Although Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and White House in 2003, “Congress was at an impasse” over a budget bill because of a proposal by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), DeLay wrote. Stevens “was an ally of the broadcast affiliates,” and he proposed “to codify in law the Federal Communications Commission’s rule that no broadcast group could reach more than 35 percent of American households,” DeLay wrote. 迪莱写道，尽管共和党在2003年控制了众议院、参议院和白宫，但由于参议员泰德·史蒂文斯（共和党，阿拉斯加州）的一项提案，国会在一项预算法案上陷入了“僵局”。迪莱写道，史蒂文斯“是广播附属机构的盟友”，他提议“将联邦通信委员会关于任何广播集团覆盖范围不得超过美国家庭35%的规则写入法律”。
DeLay supported the Bush-era FCC’s deregulatory agenda and refused to back any budget bill that contained the Stevens proposal. DeLay said this week that he also worried about the potential impact on then-recent media mergers. After the FCC raised the cap to 45 percent, “CBS and Fox had acquired stations that had them reaching nearly 39 percent of the nation’s households,” DeLay wrote. 迪莱支持布什政府时期FCC的放松管制议程，并拒绝支持任何包含史蒂文斯提案的预算法案。迪莱本周表示，他还担心这对当时近期发生的媒体合并可能产生的影响。迪莱写道，在FCC将上限提高到45%后，“哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）和福克斯（Fox）收购了一些电台，使其覆盖范围达到了全国近39%的家庭。”
DeLay said he didn’t want to require those networks to divest stations they had lawfully purchased, and he made a compromise with Stevens to pass the budget bill and keep funding the federal government. “In the end, Stevens and I agreed to legislation that set the cap at 39 percent and prohibited the FCC from changing the cap in its biennial review of media ownership rules. The FCC was not allowed to waive the requirement, except to help companies come into compliance,” DeLay wrote. 迪莱表示，他不想要求这些电视网剥离他们合法购买的电台，于是他与史蒂文斯达成妥协，通过了预算法案并维持了联邦政府的资金运作。“最终，史蒂文斯和我达成了一项立法，将上限设定为39%，并禁止FCC在两年一度的媒体所有权规则审查中更改该上限。除帮助公司合规外，FCC不得豁免该要求，”迪莱写道。
The budget bill changed the FCC’s biennial reviews to quadrennial and said the FCC authority to repeal or change regulations during its quadrennial reviews does not apply to the 39 percent TV ownership cap. During each quadrennial review, “The Commission…” 该预算法案将FCC的两年一度审查改为四年一度，并规定FCC在四年一度审查期间废除或修改法规的权力不适用于39%的电视所有权上限。在每次四年一度的审查期间，“委员会……”