Senate Communications Subcommittee Chair Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and 13 other senators urged NTIA on Tuesday to “preserve states’ ability to use their non-deployment BEAD funds consistent with congressional intent” amid concerns that the Trump administration might seek to claw that money back. Some estimates have found that $20 billion of BEAD’s $42.5 billion in funding qualifies as non-deployment money. President Donald Trump last week signed an executive order that directs NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment BEAD funding for states that the administration determines have overly burdensome AI laws (see 2512120048).
House Communications Subcommittee member Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., on Friday night hailed the FCC's publication in the Federal Register of the Public Safety Bureau's January multilingual wireless emergency alerts rules (see 2501080029). Attorneys general from 18 states and the city of New York threatened in November to pursue legal action to force the rules’ publication (see 2511070042). Barragan noted that she led a letter in May with more than two dozen other House Democrats pressing the FCC to publish the rules and begin implementing them.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., on Thursday urged Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang to testify on Capitol Hill in response to the Trump administration allowing sales of the company's more advanced H200 AI chips to China. Warren said during a floor speech that she is concerned that President Donald Trump may force DOJ to curtail a crackdown begun earlier this week on smuggling of such chips to China. “Will Donald Trump muzzle his own [DOJ] because he does not want Americans to know that he is selling out our national security?” she asked. The White House, Commerce Department and Nvidia didn't immediately comment.
The Senate voted 75-22 Thursday on a motion to proceed to the House-passed compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (S-1071) that omits Senate-passed language from its earlier NDAA version (S-2296) that would have given the DOD and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman authority to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2512080055). The House’s original NDAA version (HR-3838) didn't include similar language. The compromise NDAA also omits language to preempt states’ AI laws amid GOP divisions on that issue (see 2512030038). The House passed S-1071 312-112 Wednesday.
A compromise version before the House of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act without language allowing DOD to essentially veto commercial use of the 3.1-3.45 and 7.4-8.4 GHz bands (see 2512080055) "is good as a matter of policy & law," the Free State Foundation wrote Tuesday on social media. Giving DOD authority over the spectrum "would violate separation of powers by constraining [the president's] authority over the executive branch." The group called the provision's removal a victory for Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, "who resisted the efforts to place certain frequencies off-limits."
The House Communications Subcommittee plans a hearing Tuesday on the Next Generation 911 Act (HR-6505) and six other public-safety communications measures, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday night. The newly refiled HR-6505 would appropriate an undefined amount of funding for next-generation 911 tech upgrades for FY 2026-30. NG911 advocates have been pressing Congress to identify a new funding source after Republican lawmakers decided against allocating future spectrum auction revenue for the tech upgrades in the July budget reconciliation package (see 2507080065).
Kiss co-founder Gene Simmons implied during an appearance Friday at the White House press briefing room that President Donald Trump would support the American Music Fairness Act (HR-861/S-326) if Congress passes it. The measure would levy a performance royalty on stations playing music on terrestrial radio. HR-861/S-326 is “a bipartisan bill that will get passed because [Trump] is very pro-artist,” Simmons told reporters. “America invented the music of the world in the first place, [but] we’re letting our artists” not get paid royalties for terrestrial radio transmissions of their music. Simmons was at the White House in conjunction with Trump’s planned presentation Sunday of the original lineup of Kiss musicians as Kennedy Center Honors recipients.
Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Wednesday night that a potential Netflix purchase of Warner Bros., “if it were to materialize, would raise serious competition questions -- perhaps more so than any transaction I’ve seen in about a decade.” Warner Bros. Discovery said in October that it was mulling unsolicited offers to buy just a split of WB or the entire company, even as it considers continuing to pursue division of WB and Discovery Global (see 2510210007).
Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., filed the Quashing Unwanted and Interruptive Electronic Telecommunications (Quiet) Act on Thursday to require all robocallers to disclose when a call or text message uses AI technology. The measure would require the disclosure to happen “at the beginning of the call or text message.” It exempts calls or text messages “sent using equipment that requires substantial human intervention to make or send” the communication. The bill would also increase Telephone Consumer Protection Act violation forfeiture penalties for AI-generated robocalls to “twice the maximum amount that may be imposed” under the statute. It would double the TCPA criminal fine as well.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that a compromise version of the FY 2026 National Defense Authorization Act still under negotiation won’t include language to preempt states’ AI laws, amid ongoing concerns about proposals tying such a pause to funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband program. President Donald Trump has been eyeing a draft executive order that could force NTIA to deny non-deployment BEAD funding to states with AI laws that the administration deems overly onerous (see 2511200057).