Former House majority leader Tom DeLay has warned that the Trump-era Federal Communications Commission (FCC) lacks the legal authority to scrap the 39 percent national TV ownership cap, a rule he helped write into law. His intervention comes days before the FCC, chaired by Brendan Carr, is due to vote on Thursday on a proposal to eliminate the cap and replace it with case-by-case reviews of broadcast mergers, a move critics say could concentrate media ownership and favour outlets friendly to President Trump.

The cap limits any single broadcaster from reaching more than 39 percent of US television households and was set at that level by Congress in 2004, after lawmakers overrode an earlier FCC decision to raise it to 45 percent. In a Daily Wire op-ed, DeLay argued that because the limit is written into statute, only Congress—not the regulator—can change it, and urged Carr to seek legislative approval instead. Past FCC leaderships, including under Democratic chair Tom Wheeler, have claimed authority to alter the cap outside periodic reviews, and Carr's FCC has already used a case-by-case approach to approve Nexstar's purchase of Tegna, suggesting any repeal could still face legal challenges.