A Senate hearing set for next week could move the FCC closer to a full bench. The Commerce Committee has scheduled consideration of several nominees from President Trump, including Chairman Brendan Carr’s senior counsel, Danielle Thumann Severs.
Severs, nominated in August, currently serves as senior counsel to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, advising him on matters before the Wireline Competition Bureau, the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau.
The hearing is scheduled for Thursday, September 17 at 10:30a ET.
Following Thursday’s hearing, the record typically stays open afterward for senators to submit written follow-up questions before the committee votes on whether to report her nomination to the full Senate. A confirmation vote would then require a simple majority on the floor, the timing of which is controlled by Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
If confirmed, Severs would fill a seat that has sat vacant since Republican Nathan Simington and Democrat Geoffrey Starks both departed the commission in June 2025, giving the FCC’s Republican bloc its full three-seat allotment under federal law. Her nomination carries a five-year term dating from July 1, 2024.
Severs has held two stints at the FCC. She first joined then-Commissioner Carr’s office as a legal advisor in March 2021, left in 2023 for a year in the private sector handling government relations for a telecommunications infrastructure provider, and rejoined Carr’s office in August 2024.
The hearing lands in the same week the House is set to take up the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, making it a busy stretch for broadcasters watching Capitol Hill on two fronts at once.
