Trump is right: The administrative state needs a reset

The federal courts have spoken, and the message is clear: the days of unaccountable bureaucratic enforcement are numbered. On April 17, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Federal Communications Commission’s forfeiture order against a broadcaster, signaling urgent need for internal reform. In so doing, the court joined a growing judicial movement to restore constitutional limits to the administrative state. If the FCC doesn’t want to find itself repeatedly on the losing end of such rulings, it must act now to modernize its enforcement processes and recommit to our foundational principles of due process and statutory fidelity. First, the FCC should immediately begin a top-to-bottom review of its enforcement procedures. That includes the internal adjudication mechanisms used to impose fines and penalties, many of which were designed in an era of far greater deference to agency discretion. We should ask whether those procedures offer adequate due process, whether they comply with current constitutional standards, and whether they can be improved to better reflect the rule of law. Second, we must reassess whether our interpretations of statutory authority — especially in areas like forfeiture and license enforcement — are firmly grounded in congressional intent. The courts have little patience left for creative agency readings of the law. It’s time to return to textual fundamentals. Third, the FCC should actively support the work of DOGE and other reform initiatives. This includes identifying rules and precedents that, while perhaps once useful, now serve little purpose beyond entrenching bureaucratic inertia or legal risk. Finally, we should foster a new culture within the agency — one that values legal humility over expansive power. Agencies should not be in the business of stretching the law to fit their policy preferences. That’s Congress’s job. Our role is to execute the law faithfully, not reinvent it.

[Nathan A. Simington is a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission. Gavin M. Wax is his chief of staff and senior advisor.]