House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone of New Jersey, Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui of California and the subpanel’s 10 other Democrats said Wednesday they’re backing the FCC’s proposal that requires disclosures on political ads created with generative AI (see 2407250046). The FCC is facing pushback from congressional Republicans over the AI proposal, as demonstrated during a July House Communications hearing (see 2407090049). NAB and the Motion Picture Association are seeking a 30-day extension for comments on the proceeding in docket 24-211 (see 2408120034). Comments are currently due Sept. 4, replies Sept. 19. “We believe that this action is necessary considering the growing impact of generative AI tools on our electoral process,” the House Communications Democrats said in a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. “While AI is not new, the speed at which we are witnessing the deployment of generative AI is staggering. During this election season, we have already seen AI deployed to manipulate, confuse and misinform voters.” The Democratic lawmakers pushed back against claims by Republican Federal Election Commission Chairman Sean Cooksey and others that the FEC has sole authority over political reporting requirements and disclaimers (see 2406060051). “Such arguments ignore the relevant statutes and decades of precedent,” the Democrats said: “We also find it worrisome that such a simple, consumer-friendly proposal that imposes minimal burdens has evoked such strong opposition from Republicans -- even well before the full text of the proposal was released to the public” in late July (see 2407250046).

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wants a “detailed update” from NTIA on “major administrative delays in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program that have resulted from unlawful red tape [the agency] imposed.” Cruz in September urged states to return unused BEAD money if they have adequate funding from other federal broadband programs to deploy connectivity in unserved areas (see 2309150069). Cruz is now focusing his ire on NTIA allocating $849 million of the $42.5 billion Congress awarded BEAD in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to administer the program. That “nearly billion-dollar slush fund ... appears to have enabled NTIA to impose excessive administrative burdens and pursue the Biden-Harris administration’s extreme left-wing social policies, without legal authority,” Cruz said Tuesday in a letter to NTIA Administrator Alan Davidson. “NTIA has sought to misuse its BEAD authorities to impose rate regulation, unionized labor requirements, climate change regulations, technology mandates, and other extralegal policies on the States. This has continued despite Congress repeatedly reminding NTIA that Congress gave it no statutory authority to use BEAD for any of these social goals” (see 2304200064). “The hard-earned taxpayer dollars appropriated to BEAD should be spent as Congress authorized -- to bring internet access to all Americans -- not held hostage to central planning edicts or left-wing priorities,” Cruz said. He wants NTIA to give him information by Aug. 27 on how it's spent BEAD administrative funding and its evaluation process for states' BEAD plans. NTIA is “in receipt of the letter and will respond,” a spokesperson emailed. A Cruz news release announcing the letter targeted Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ presidential nominee, because President Joe Biden put her in charge of shepherding the broadband portion of his infrastructure spending proposal through Congress in 2021 (see 2104290076).

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, should investigate potential political misinformation against Vice President Kamala Harris on X, ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., wrote the chairman Monday. Nadler cited allegations that Grok, X's AI chatbot, shared inaccurate information about Harris. Grok told users Harris missed ballot deadlines in “nine states and suggested that she was ineligible to appear on the presidential ballot in the 2024 election,” Nadler said. The platform removes misinformation against Republican politicians but doesn't apply the same standard for Democrats, he added. Given Jordan’s “extensive” focus on social media censorship claims, his office should investigate this issue, he said. A spokesperson for Jordan said Monday: “No one is doing more for free speech on the internet than Elon Musk and his platform is working better than ever.” Jordan has led various committee efforts probing alleged social media censorship against conservatives (see 2405010079).

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized the Department of Transportation Thursday night for seeking to zero federal funding for the Maritime Administration’s Cable Security Fleet program in its FY 2025 appropriations request. Congress allocated $10 million for the program in FY 2024. “Congress created the CSF Program through the” FY 2020 National Defense Authorization Act “to ensure a domestic capability to maintain and repair undersea cables,” Cruz said in a letter to Maritime Administration head Rear Admiral Ann Phillips. He said the program requires the administration to contract with privately owned U.S.-flagged cable vessels in “times of national emergency. The security of undersea cables depends on having access to these ‘trusted’ ships for maintenance and repair of cables, rather than relying on foreign-flagged repair ships sometimes owned by foreign adversaries, which may be recalled to their home countries or otherwise pose risks and reliability concerns during conflict.” The “request to zero out the CSF program is puzzling considering the uptick in threats to undersea cables,” including from China and Russia, Cruz said: “U.S. officials have raised concerns that foreign cable repair ships -- on which we will further rely absent the CSF program -- pose a security threat because underwater cables are vulnerable to tampering. Specifically, other countries could tap undersea data streams, conduct reconnaissance on U.S. military communication links, or steal valuable intellectual property used in cable equipment.”

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is pressing Republican FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington to insist the full commission review requests from restructuring radio group Audacy for expedited foreign-ownership review as part of the purchase of its stock by George Soros-affiliated entities (see 2404230054). In July, Cruz wrote Democratic Commissioners Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks, urging that they push for a full FCC vote. “Considering the large number of stations involved, the presence of foreign ownership interests in excess of limits specified in federal law, and the deal’s timing in the final run-up to the Presidential election, I argued that a thorough vetting by the full Commission was both an expected duty of the officeholder and necessary to protect the interests of the American public,” Cruz said Friday in a letter to Simington. Cruz's letter to Carr wasn't available. Gomez and Starks “indicated they were eager to avoid accountability by letting faceless, unelected bureaucrats who were not accountable to the public or the Senate rubber-stamp the deal under the guise of delegated authority.” The Democratic commissioners “appear willing to turn a blind eye to Chairwoman [Jessica] Rosenworcel’s pattern of abusing delegated authority,” Cruz said: “This was seen most starkly in the Commission’s mishandling of” the terminated Standard General/Tegna deal (see 2306010077), “where instead of holding an open and transparent Commission-level vote, [Rosenworcel] violated FCC precedent and quashed the deal through a bureau-level order.” He asked Carr and Simington to respond by Aug. 23 about whether they back a full FCC vote on Audacy.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, are urging the FCC and DOJ Antitrust Division to “closely scrutinize” the Venu Sports streaming platform joint venture from Disney subsidiary ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery (see 2402070006). “This massive new sports streaming company would be poised to control more than 80% of nationally broadcast sports and more than half of all national sports content, putting it in a position to exercise monopoly power over televised sports,” the lawmakers said in an eight-page letter to DOJ Antitrust Chief Jonathan Kanter and FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released Wednesday. “The market power of [Venu's] three giant parent companies would enable it to discriminate against competitors and increase prices for consumers.” The streaming deal’s description as a joint venture “should not prevent antitrust and telecommunications regulators from giving it the scrutiny it deserves,” the lawmakers said: The FCC and DOJ Antitrust should “oppose it if it violates antitrust or telecommunications laws or regulations.” They suggested the FCC examine whether the Venu Sports proposal represents “a violation of the national ownership cap” given its “duty to prevent a single entity from reaching more than 39% of households, and its broader mandate to promote competition in the public interest.”

A bipartisan bill introduced Wednesday would direct the Homeland Security Department to conduct annual assessments of how foreign terrorists are using apps like TikTok and Telegram. House Counterterrorism Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., introduced the bill, which would cover terrorist activity on cloud-based mobile and desktop applications. Pfluger said in a statement: “Foreign-controlled apps like TikTok and encrypted messaging platforms like Telegram have shined a disturbing light on the lengths America’s enemies will go to attack our way of life and radicalize young minds.” Panetta said it’s “essential” to better understand how these apps are used so future attacks can be stopped.

The Senate Appropriations Committee's report on its Financial Services Subcommittee FY 2025 funding bill “urges” that the FCC move forward on revamping the Universal Service Fund. The Senate Appropriations Financial Services bill, which the panel approved Thursday, would increase annual funding for the FCC and FTC for FY25 (see 2408010059). Senate Appropriations said in the report, released Thursday night, that it wants the FCC to “seek public comment this fiscal year on any reform proposals that have been submitted to the commission or otherwise previously considered that would promote the sustainability and viability of [USF] and resolve inequities in the current contribution structure.” The FCC should “act as soon as possible following review of that record to adopt reforms to achieve” revamp objectives, Senate Appropriations said: The commission “should also provide specific recommendations to Congress regarding additional authority it believes it may need to enact any reforms that are found to be prudent, advisable, or necessary.” Members of a congressional working group are grappling with whether the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ July ruling that the FCC's USF contribution factor is unconstitutional will affect their work on a revamp framework (see 2407300053).

A bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday formally filed legislation that would establish liability for sharing AI-driven content without the original creator’s consent. Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced the Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe (No Fakes) Act (see 2310120036). The measure would hold individuals, companies and platforms liable for creating and hosting such content. “Generative AI can be used as a tool to foster creativity, but that can’t come at the expense of the unauthorized exploitation of anyone’s voice or likeness,” Coons said in a statement. The Computer & Communications Industry Association said the bill is “well-intentioned,” but as written it would “undermine Section 230, place limits on freedom of expression, and shrink fair use.” In addition, it lacks provisions protecting fair use and free expression, said Brian McMillan, vice president-federal affairs: “We understand the risks of false information that appears real, as our members deploy many algorithmic tools to identify and respond to deepfakes. This legislation emphasizes liability over support for these efforts.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Wednesday evening failed to secure unanimous consent for two of her election-related AI bills. The lawmaker requested UC for the Protecting Elections from Deceptive AI Act (S-2770), which she introduced with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and the AI Transparency in Elections Act (S-3875), co-written with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. The Klobuchar-chaired Senate Rules Committee advanced both bills in May (see 2405150048). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Wednesday urged the upper chamber to pass the bills without delay to protect the integrity of U.S. elections against AI-driven misinformation. Senate Rules Committee ranking member Deb Fischer, R-Neb., objected to both bills on free speech grounds. S-2770 is “overly broad,” and its “vague terms” greatly expand the regulation of protected speech, she said. In addition, S-3875 fails to strike the proper balance of protecting online users against misinformation while also protecting free speech rights, she said.