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188 comments

  • This is ridiculous how difficult it is to get this law through. Clearly it must be something good. I am 100% behind it.

    • The problem is that it isn't a law, it's a regulation.

      On the one hand, the Republicans are definitely playing politics by attacking the ability of agencies to come up with regulations. But on the other, it really is just another example of how various parts of the US government have been ceding or delegating their responsibilities around willy-nilly in ways that weren't constitutionally intended. Congress hasn't made a declaration of war since 1942, despite all the wars the US has entered into since then. The Supreme Court was never even intended to decide the constitutionality of laws, that's something they declared for themselves and everyone's just gone along with it since then. The debt ceiling limit is just plain incoherent, Congress allocates money so a budget they pass should automatically override previous legislation (like the debt ceiling limit).

      I don't know what the US should do to resolve all this, but it's getting to be quite the mess.

      • Setting up a Commission and giving it regulatory power is very much in the power of Congress. The Constitution literally says

        Congress shall have the power ... To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

        So they are well within their rights to pass a law setting up the FCC to promulgate regulations based on the Telecommunications Act. They are also well within their rights to pass a law recognizing the President's emergency military power, restraining it, and formalizing the process to declare war with different words. Both of which are things they have done. The FCC didn't magic this shit out of nowhere, and Iraq and Afghanistan were the result of Congressional votes in favor of an AUMF, as outlined in the War Powers Act.

        This idea that shit happens willy-nilly is fucking propaganda meant to normalize it so people don't think it's weird when a corrupt politician tries it.

      • I don’t know what the US should do to resolve all this, but it’s getting to be quite the mess.

        it really is just another example of how various parts of the US government have been ceding or delegating their responsibilities around willy-nilly

        This is the big one. Congress has been delegating their power to the Executive for decades. Rather than meaningful law, they tell the Executive to make regulations that don't stand the test of time. Congress needs to pass laws again, instead of delegating large swaths of their power.

188 comments