Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., hopes President Donald Trump and lawmakers can resolve the TikTok divestiture uncertainty amid the White House’s 75-day pause in enforcement of the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’s requirement that ByteDance sell the platform (see 2501210070). “We’ve given every tool possible” to combat Chinese government influence over the app, including the divest-or-ban statute, Cantwell said on the Senate floor. “Now it’s time to get this into the hands of U.S. innovators and move forward.” She doesn’t “know that a joint venture with the Chinese is going to rectify” those concerns. “They can’t continue to own and influence this process,” Cantwell said. “But U.S. innovation and U.S. ownership can drive us forward, can drive a better experience for our young people” who use TikTok. She hailed “agentic AI” as helping consumers “control the algorithms that billionaires or foreign governments have been using to control us.” The technology will help people “take in massive amounts of information from the internet ... and then apply filters ... so that we only get the information that we want to see and not what somebody else wants to do with our information.”

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said Tuesday the FCC should “revisit” its 3-2 September decision that granted radio broadcaster Audacy’s request for a temporary waiver of foreign-ownership requirements to complete a bankruptcy restructuring that included George Soros-affiliated entities purchasing its stock (see 2409300046). The Audacy order drew strong congressional GOP opposition in the lead-up to the November presidential election, including a House Oversight Committee probe (see 2409270053). Kennedy, who previously chaired the Senate Appropriations Financial Services Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over FCC funding, framed the Soros-affiliated entities’ purchase of Audacy stock as a “weird” sale that included WWL(AM) New Orleans. The waiver request “went through the FCC like green grass through a goose,” just ahead of the election, Kennedy said on the Senate floor Tuesday. Jessica Rosenworcel's FCC, which included three Democrats at the time, “short-circuited the normal process,” despite objections from current Republican Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Nathan Simington. “These licenses and these airwaves do not belong to me or the FCC or to Audacy or to WWL,” Kennedy said. “They belong to … the American people. And we're supposed to make sure, through our FCC … that these licenses are not just given away.” The FCC didn’t immediately comment.

NCTA CEO Michael Powell and CTIA Executive Vice President Brad Gillen are among those set to testify Thursday during a House Communications Subcommittee hearing on spectrum legislative issues, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday. House Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and other Republicans are eyeing using an upcoming budget reconciliation package to move on spectrum legislation (see 2501070069). Other witnesses on House Communications’ hearing docket: Public Knowledge CEO Chris Lewis and the Trump administration's former acting NTIA Administrator Diane Rinaldo, now Open RAN Policy Coalition executive director. The panel will begin at 10 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voiced support Thursday for extending ByteDance’s Jan. 19 deadline to divest TikTok after Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., unsuccessfully attempted to advance his Extend the TikTok Deadline Act (S-103) delay proposal Wednesday night by unanimous consent. S-103 and House companion HR-391 seek a 270-day extension of the divestment deadline (see 2501140075). “We aren’t against TikTok,” Schumer said on the floor Thursday. “We want TikTok to keep going. But we are against a Chinese company that is in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party owning TikTok.” Schumer said TikTok “as it exists today has too many security risks that cannot be ignored,” but it’s “clear that more time is needed to find an American buyer and not disrupt the lives and livelihoods of millions of Americans, of so many influencers who have built up a good network of followers.” It’s “stunning” that Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton, R-Ark., objected to Markey’s bid to move S-103 by UC because “time is running short,” Schumer said: “We will continue to work to find a responsible solution to keeping TikTok going, protect American livelihoods and protect against Chinese Communist Party surveillance. We must and can do all three.”

House China Committee Chairman John Moolenaar, R-Mich., urged that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. review Skydance Media's proposed $8 billion purchase of Paramount Global because of Tencent’s investment in Skydance. The Center for American Rights argued earlier this week that Tencent’s status as part of DOD’s list of Chinese military companies operating in the U.S. warrants an FCC probe of Skydance/Paramount (see 2501140048). “We’ve heard from multiple Hollywood executives about rampant self-censorship designed to curry favor with the Chinese Communist Party,” Moolenaar said in a statement Wednesday night. DOD’s recent classification of “Tencent as a Chinese military company” means “CFIUS should closely scrutinize the proposed merger to ensure the Chinese Communist Party is not further solidifying its hold on the American entertainment industry.” Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., in a separate statement, said the “potential for a [People's Republic of China] national champion like Tencent to hold a significant financial stake in a major US content conglomerate raises serious concerns and should absolutely prompt CFIUS scrutiny.”

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said Wednesday he's retaining the chairmen of subcommittees with jurisdiction over the FCC, FTC, NTIA and other Commerce Department agencies, the DOJ Antitrust Division and CPB. Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, will continue leading the Financial Services Subcommittee. Former House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., will remain ranking member. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., will keep the Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., is the subpanel's new ranking member. Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., will retain his post as Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee chairman. Aderholt spearheaded bids in 2023 and 2024 to end CPB's advance appropriations (see 2407100060). House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut will continue as the subpanel's lead Democrat.

Bipartisan, bicameral legislation filed Tuesday seeks a 270-day delay for ByteDance’s Jan. 19 deadline to divest TikTok (see 2501100058). Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; and Cory Booker, D-N.J., along with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act. “The TikTok ban was rushed through without sufficient consideration of the profound consequences it would have on the 170 million Americans who use the platform,” said Markey. The bill “is a straightforward, one-sentence bill designed to give Congress the time needed to fully assess the implications of this ban.”

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Tuesday he’s keeping Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., as Communications Subcommittee ranking member, as expected (see 2412170053). Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., will stay on as Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee ranking member, Pallone said. Eight Democrats will join House Communications: Nanette Barragan of California, Kathy Castor of Florida, Troy Carter of Louisiana, Greg Landsman of Ohio, Jennifer McClellan of Virginia, Rob Menendez of New Jersey, Scott Peters of California and Raul Ruiz of California. House Commerce will meet Wednesday to ratify the subcommittees’ leaders and approve the panel’s rules for this Congress (see 2501130031).

Congress' oversight of broadband subsidy programs should include moving universal service funding from a surcharge to direct congressional appropriations, the Competitive Enterprise Institute said Tuesday as it issued "a pro-growth agenda" for the 119th Congress. CEI urged a focus on reform and oversight of BEAD and reauthorization of the FCC's spectrum auction authority. The libertarian public policy organization also said Congress should oppose efforts at repealing or curtailing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Tulsi Gabbard, President-elect Donald Trump's choice as director of national intelligence, supports maintaining controversial surveillance authorities under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Section 702, according to a statement Friday. An opponent of FISA Section 702 while serving as a House Democrat, Gabbard now says she believes it’s “crucial for gathering foreign intelligence on non-U.S. persons abroad." Federal law enforcement agencies use Section 702 to compel phone companies and internet service providers to share communications data, including phone calls, texts and emails, for investigations of foreign targets. Privacy advocates have long sought a warrant requirement for Section 702. In 2018, Gabbard spoke against renewing Section 702, saying it violates civil liberties. Friday she said, "My prior concerns about FISA were based on insufficient protections for civil liberties, particularly regarding the FBI's misuse of warrantless search powers on American citizens.” Gabbard added, “Significant FISA reforms have been enacted since my time in Congress to address these issues.”