Sweeping tech plans

E&C Republicans clear sweeping tech plans in party-line vote

Democrats lobbed plenty of objections, offering different ideas on spectrum reauthorization and proposing to nix a moratorium on state AI regulations. They all fell short.

John Hendel

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 29-24 early Wednesday to advance the communications title of the GOP megabill central to enacting President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

That included approving a host of thorny tech and telecom provisions, including a spectrum provision set to raise $88 billion by selling frequencies and implementing a decadelong moratorium on state AI regulation.

The panel’s draft legislation would free up 600 megahertz of spectrum for commercial use as a major revenue raiser, which Pentagon allies in the Senate Republican Conference fear could jeopardize spectrum-reliant military operations. Those GOP friction points weren’t addressed in the Energy and Commerce markup, signaling more fine-tuning may be needed to get through the Senate.

But Democrats attacked the spectrum plan as a “cash grab” to fund tax breaks for the wealthy.

“Spectrum is a public resource of which the government is a steward,” said full committee ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), adding that the spectrum auction revenue should go toward priorities like upgrading 911 systems and not tax cuts.

Democrats also tried and failed to knock out the GOP’s 10-year moratorium on states implementing AI measures, a provision that might not pass muster with parliamentary rules across the Capitol.

Pallone, who proposed the amendment to strip the provision, called the moratorium “an unprecedented giveaway to Big Tech” and said Congress should be learning from the states’ work, not leaving them powerless to combat AI harms.

Republicans countered the moratorium is necessary, in part to allow the Commerce Department to more fully embrace artificial intelligence and automation technologies.

Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) — an active lawmaker on AI issues — said it would be impossible for Commerce to do its job in the face of a “labyrinth” of 50 state AI regulations.

“I think a moratorium is appropriate,” Obernolte said, positing it would give lawmakers a runway to develop federal rules.

“We know we need to have a national standard,” full committee chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) told Democrats, expressing his commitment to developing federal AI legislation.