Glenn Ivey Tears Into FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Over DEI Crackdown: ‘That Is Not True’

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During Wednesday's House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) questioned FCC Chairman Brendan Carr about DEI initiatives in the Trump Administration.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Evers. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Ivey, for five

00:04minutes of questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning. Thank you, Chairman Carr. Good

00:10morning. Appreciate you being here. I did want to follow up on some of the DEI questions that

00:14Congressman Bishop had raised. You were sworn in on, was it January 20th? You were sworn in?

00:22Designated. Designated. Okay. Did you begin working at the FCC on that date?

00:26I've been there actually, believe it or not, since 2012, straight, with no break.

00:30Okay. And then on February 27th, you sent a letter to Verizon, essentially accusing them

00:40of invidious discrimination. Do you recall doing that? Yes.

00:44Okay. And then you got a letter back from Verizon dated May 15 from their EVP chief legal officer

00:54that didn't acknowledge or admit invidious discrimination, but said that it had made

01:00some changes to its DEI policies. Do you recall that? Yes.

01:04Okay. And that was May 15th. Then May 16th, you issued a press release with respect to the

01:14Verizon Frontier merger. Do you recall that? All right. That's a yes for the record?

01:19Yes. Okay. And then the memorandum order and opinion was released that same day. And that day

01:27was when the FCC approved the request with respect to the merger that, I guess, had been held up in

01:36part during your determination with respect to the DEI issue. Is that right?

01:42Well, Congresswoman, with respect to this transaction and all transactions, we run a normal course

01:49process at the FCC, and we specifically have rules on our books that deal with EEO, that

01:56deal with non-discrimination. I'll come to that in a second. But the day after you received

02:01the letter back from Verizon, the FCC approved the request, right?

02:06Correct.

02:06All right. And in the order that you issued, well, first of all, in the letter that you sent,

02:13you didn't, well, let me ask it this way. Before you sent that letter, essentially alleging

02:20invidious discrimination committed by Verizon, had the FCC done any kind of investigation with

02:26respect to any complaints of discrimination at Verizon that led you to write that letter?

02:34Well, as a general matter, two things have taken place.

02:37Not a general matter. Did you review any particular allegations against Verizon before you sent this

02:44letter?

02:45Well, again, Congresswoman, there's two things that we're doing. One is when I started as chair,

02:50what we did is we ended the FCC's own promotion of the DEI.

02:53No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm asking if there's a factual basis for the letter that you sent.

02:57And if so, was it investigations with respect to complaints against Verizon? Were there any

03:04complaints that you reviewed that had been filed with the EEOC alleging discrimination against

03:11Verizon? Were there any court cases that you reviewed alleging discrimination against Verizon?

03:17Any of those?

03:19One of the things that we've been very clear about...

03:22Sir, I only have five minutes. Did you do any of that before you issued this letter?

03:28What I'm saying is, we have a standard of non-discrimination.

03:31That's not what I'm asking.

03:32And what I've made clear to everybody...

03:33I'm asking if you had a factual basis for... And the reason I'm asking is because when you

03:37allege invidious discrimination, and the cases you cited, Supreme Court cases, say that

03:43you have to have a factual basis to support the claim. And they're very specific about what

03:49those factual basis are. For example, suspect classification. Did you have anybody alleging

03:55racial discrimination or religious discrimination, that you reviewed those matters before you

04:03issued this letter?

04:04Those limitations that you're speaking about apply in the context of those types of cases,

04:11but that's not the rule that applies at the FCC.

04:13Yes, you have non-discrimination rules.

04:15I'm just asking if you reviewed anything before you sent this letter.

04:19If you look at the letter...

04:20I did.

04:21...from Verizon, it walks through a number of practices, including practices that I was aware

04:25of when I sent that letter.

04:27But none of those actually admit, as you just acknowledged, invidious discrimination, right?

04:33In fact, none of them actually deal with any of the suspect classifications, like race,

04:38for example. That would be the basis for a finding of invidious discrimination.

04:42Let me move on. Real quick, in the order that you issued in paragraph 33, which is the only

04:49one that deals with the DEI issue, it references the letter that you got back from Verizon, but

04:54it doesn't state anything about any kind of factual basis that the FCC developed to support

05:01the original allegation that you made of invidious discrimination. If you'd had any evidence

05:07to that effect, would you have put it in the order?

05:09Well, question, again, I think what you're raising are factual points that are relevant

05:14to, like, a 1983 action.

05:16Well, you would at least acknowledge...

05:18That's a gentleman answer.

05:19Well, if I get additional time, I'd be happy to.

05:21You're asking us if we followed a process and a standard that doesn't apply in the context

05:26of the FCC. We follow the FCC's processes. The FCC has non-discrimination rules on the books.

05:32The Communications Act. You can make an allegation of invidious discrimination without having

05:38any facts to support the claim under the FCC. That is not true.

05:42The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri, Mr.

05:45in the Czar.

05:46The Attorney is on the Board of Trustees meeting, Mr.

05:47Reid.

05:47I mean, the

05:57Czar.

05:58They came by saying, you got a couple of things that I asked him to, you got a couple that

06:00he said.

06:01I want to call this thing, not always, but the person who actually already mentioned.

06:02I want to call this thing, but the person who has written a letter that he can, as

06:04a player of the exception and the other, is he heard that he says that he said that he

06:09had to be ready for the exercise.

06:10He said, I can't do this for a couple of things that I learned.

06:12He said, you got a couple of things that I think that I can't do for

06:13so, but I wouldn't know it.

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