US Senate

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and introduced a resolution on June 24, both concerning US development and deployment of 5G wireless technology. The senator’s letter to Sec Ross raises concerns that the Department of Commerce may be intentionally delaying progress in the race to 5G. 

Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and the head of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Makan Delrahim, urging close scrutiny of Sinclair Broadcast Group's recent acquisition of 21 Regional Sports Networks and Fox College Sports (RSNs) from the Walt Disney Company in a deal valued at $10.6 billion.

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Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the Ending Support for Internet Censorship Act, a major update to the way big tech companies are treated under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Sen.

Sens Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mark Warner (D-VA) warned the Trump Administration not to concede on important national security matters related to countering Huawei, a Chinese state-directed telecommunications company recently added to the US Commerce Department’s banned Entity List, and the development of fifth-generation wireless telecommunications technology (5G) in order to achieve a favorable outcome on trade negotiations with China.

Sens Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Rob Portman (R-OH), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Angus King (I-ME) introduced the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act to strengthen the nation’s criminal justice system. This bipartisan bill would help families keep in touch with their incarcerated family members, and would address long-standing concerns about the prohibitively expensive and predatory price of phone calls that incarcerated individuals at correctional facilities across the US are forced to pay.