Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX)
GAO Report Underscores Sen. Cruz’s Concerns Over Wasteful Broadband Spending and Hidden Phone Bill Tax
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report requested Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) that found the Universal Service Fund (USF) operator is burning through cash with only minimal government oversight of its budget. The report confirms the need for greater Congressional oversight of the USF as Sen. Cruz laid out in his Blueprint for Universal Service Fund Reform, published last year.
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Sen Cruz requests information on BEAD Program
I write to request a detailed update on the major administrative delays in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program that have resulted from unlawful red tape imposed by your agency [the National Telecommunications and Information Administration]. Despite the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) three-year-old clear statutory mandate to bring the internet to the unserved, your agency has failed to connect a single American. What NTIA has done with the money so far is create a nearly billion-dollar slush fund to “administer” the program. Speci
Weaponizing Terms of Service: How Online Service Providers Use Broad Policies to Silence Conservatives
A report on how online service providers are weaponizing their terms of service to deny conservative organizations access to essential business technology. The report concludes with the following recommendations:
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Protecting Americans From Hidden FCC Tax Hikes
The Federal Communications Commission is poised to raise taxes through its Universal Service Fund—a regressive, hidden tax on consumers' phone bills that funds a series of unaccountable, bloated internet subsidy programs. Rather than giving the FCC carte blanche to expand its balance sheet, Congress must reform the USF's structural problems, reevaluate its component programs, and get the FCC's spending under control. Here is my plan to do that.
Republicans Raise Serious Concerns About the FCC’s Management of the ACP
We write asking you to clarify your recent congressional testimony regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). At a hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on November 30, 2023, you asserted—without evidence and contrary to the FCC’s own data—that “25 million households” would be “unplug[ged]…from the internet” if Congress does not provide new funding for the ACP. This is not true.
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Republican senators want to stop the FCC from updating data-breach notification rules
It has come to our attention that the Federal Communications Commission intends to vote on a Report and Order that would violate Congress’ Resolution of Disapproval vitiating the FCC’s 2016 Broadband Privacy Order. Since the FCC has no authority to ignore Congress’ exercise of the Congressional Review Act (CRA), we urge you to withdraw the draft Report and Order to avoid resurrecting substantially similar parts of the 2016 Broadband Privacy Order that Congress nullified. The FCC’s proposed rules in the Report and Order are clearly “substantially similar” to the nullified 2016 rules.
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Sen. Cruz (R-TX) Leads Senate Republicans in Calling on FCC to Halt ‘Digital Equity’ Plan
We write in response to your recently circulated Draft Order on “Digital Discrimination” that would turn section 60506 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) into a sweeping mandate for heavy-handed Internet regulation and expose every nook and cranny of the broadband business to liability under a “disparate impact” standard. Your Draft Order, which largely follows a Biden administration diktat, will create crippling uncertainty for the U.S. broadband industry, chill broadband investment, and undermine Congress’s objective of promoting broadband access for all Americans.
Sen. Cruz, Rep. McMorris Rodgers Urge FCC Commissioner to Reject Rosenworcel Plan to Subsidize TikTok on School Buses
We write to express our strong opposition to a plan circulated by Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel to expand the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC or the Commission) E-Rate program. This plan would not only violate federal law but also duplicate programs across the federal government, directly contradicting FCC commissioners’ repeated commitments to streamlining federal broadband funding.
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Red Light Report
In June, the Biden administration allocated $42.45 billion in Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding among states—the largest single pot of federal broadband spending in our country’s history. Biden officials at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) made these allocations despite repeated requests from lawmakers and communities across the country to first improve the data underlying NTIA’s funding decisions.
Sen. Cruz Announces Subcommittee Ranking Members for 118th Congress
The following Republican Ranking Members for the 118th Congress: