US Senate

Sen John Thune (R-SD) and several of his colleagues in sent a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris regarding her "egregious mismanagement of federal broadband initiatives." In particular, the Senators criticized the delayed rollout of the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, saying, "Instead of focusing on delivering broadband services to unserved areas, your administration has used the BEAD program to add partisan, extralegal requirements that were never envisioned by Congress and have obstructed broadband deployment. By imposing burdensome climate change mandates on

Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) wrote to Jason Matheny, president and CEO of the RAND Corporation to express concern about RAND's involvement in drafting the Biden-Harris' Artificial Intelligence Executive Order. Specifically, he asked Matheny to answer the following five questions:

Sen Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), along with Sens Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Tina Smith (D-MN) sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chair Lina Khan to highlight the risks that new generative artificial intelligence (AI) features pose to competition and innovation in digital content, including journalism, and to urge both agencies to investigate whether the design of these features violates the antitrust laws. “Recently, mu

Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) introduced new legislation to help deliver reliable internet to more rural Americans by returning dormant federal funding back to the state it was intended for. The Federal Communications Commission’s current funding structure favors large companies that reap billions in federal government contracts meant to provide high-speed internet access to rural communities.

The Senate Commerce Committee advanced Senator Peter Welch’s (D-VT) amendment to fund the Affordable Connectivity Program with $7 billion, as requested in his bicameral, bipartisan Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act. The amendment was attached to the PLAN for Broadband Act, legislation to streamline federal broadband program to make it more accessible for underserved areas. The Affordable Connectivity Program Extension Act’s original Senate cosponsors include Sens Welch (D-VT), JD Vance (R-OH), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Sherrod Brown (D-O