“The American people deserve an opportunity to understand what’s really at risk…with this bill”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, joined by fellow Democratic Committee Members Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Ben Ray Luján, (N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.) and Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) urged Commerce Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Cruz to follow regular order and schedule a markup for the budget reconciliation text he released last week. The Republican bill will impact every American, but not a single hearing on the legislation has been held on the most significant piece of legislation expected to be considered by the Senate this year.

“If these policies are ‘bold and transformational’ and will have an impact ‘for generations to come’ as you argue, then they should be debated and considered through the regular order of our committee process,” wrote the Senators in a letter to Chair Cruz.  “We, too, were elected by our constituents to represent the public interest, and we should be afforded the opportunity to properly serve them by considering this legislation before it is brought to the Senate floor.”

The Republicans’ “bold and transformational” policies will indeed have a profoundly negative impact on the future of the nation.

“…this reckless proposal jeopardizes our national security by auctioning off critical defense spectrum, threatening the Wi-Fi that millions of Americans rely on daily, and impacting the aviation safety systems that protect passengers during every flight and the systems on Department of Defense and other government operated aircraft as well,” stated the Senators.

In their letter, the Senators also took issue with the AI Moratorium in the Commerce title of the bill saying, “…the AI moratorium proposal tramples states' rights and holds the $42 billion BEAD program hostage, further delaying the broadband Americans desperately need.”

It is not just Commerce Committee Democrats who believe that the AI Moratorium should not be considered as part of Reconciliation. On Monday, the House Freedom Caucus sent a memo to their Senate Republican colleagues stating, “The federal government should not prevent states from being able to regulate artificial intelligence for the next 10 years, something Congress is still actively investigating and does not fully understand the implications.” 

The bill makes numerous changes to the House-passed version and proposes significant changes to the approach to fix the nation’s air traffic control system, clearly demonstrating a lack of agreement even amongst Republicans on the best path forward for this critical issue.

“Outdated air traffic control systems, equipment, and facilities, and staffing challenges affect constituents nationwide, and when the House, the Senate, and the White House aren’t even in agreement on the right approach it’s a clear signal that all members of this Committee deserve input,” continued the Senators.

“This Committee has a long history of negotiating major pieces of bipartisan legislation, such as the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021 (included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021), the Endless Frontier Act (included in the Chips and Science Act of 2022), and the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act of 2020. We are more than capable of doing the same with the policies you are proposing in this budget reconciliation text, and we strongly urge you to bring it before the Committee,” concluded the Senators.

The text of the letter can be found HERE and below:

Chairman Cruz:

We write to urge you to schedule a markup of the budget reconciliation text you released on June 5, 2025, instead of fast tracking these significant policies through a partisan floor process. If these policies are “bold and transformational” and will have an impact “for generations to come” as you argue, then they should be debated and considered through the regular order of our committee process. We, too, were elected by our constituents to represent the public interest, and we should be afforded the opportunity to properly serve them by considering this legislation before it is brought to the Senate floor.

H.R. 1, and now the Senate companion version, seeks to add trillions to the national debt to fund tax cuts to big corporations at the expense of health coverage for 16 million kids, seniors, people with disabilities, and families. Your legislation follows this same pattern by proposing big giveaways to corporations, while endangering national security, aviation safety, and weather forecasting, stomping on states’ rights, and jeopardizing much needed broadband funding. Your bill also proposes to spend almost $50 billion on major programs and projects earmarked for Republican states, with no bipartisan scrutiny or discussion. The American people deserve an opportunity to understand what’s really at risk with provisions tucked into this bill.

For example, this reckless proposal jeopardizes our national security by auctioning off critical defense spectrum, threatening the Wi-Fi that millions of Americans rely on daily, and impacting the aviation safety systems that protect passengers during every flight and the systems on Department of Defense and other government operated aircraft as well. We have already seen dangerous interference issues with 5G deployment near aviation spectrum and this proposal risks repeating those mistakes knowing that new radio altimeter standards and equipment needed for flights to operate safely are far from ready. This bill also puts at risk critical safety spectrum used by NOAA for current and future next generation weather radar systems and frequencies used by local governments and automakers to improve the safety of our roads. And while you argue the bill keep us safe from our enemies, it guts $850 million in funding for Open RAN investments we need to compete globally against China and Huawei. Lastly, the AI moratorium proposal tramples states' rights and holds the $42 billion BEAD program hostage, further delaying the broadband Americans desperately need.

The bill also proposes billions in spending on air traffic control improvements, yet differs considerably from H.R. 1 by focusing on air traffic control consolidation versus broader modernization and workforce capacity. While we may support targeted air traffic control improvements—which many Republicans opposed when we debated the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA) and the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024—we believe this is worthy of careful bipartisan deliberation. Outdated air traffic control systems, equipment, and facilities, and staffing challenges affect constituents nationwide, and when the House, the Senate, and the White House are not even in agreement on the right approach it is a clear signal that all members of this Committee deserve input. Before we pour billions into the nation’s air traffic control system, we should ensure we have the policies, implementation plan, timing, and funding level right so we are not throwing hard-earned taxpayer money at projects and programs that will not actually fix the problem.

Despite not having a current Coast Guard authorization, which is still pending in the House after Senate passage, or a NASA Authorization, which has been pending before this Committee since January, this bill proposes billions for Coast Guard and NASA infrastructure without any discussion over whether these funds meet national priorities, and with a clear preference for funneling the expenditures to Republican states. It also creates a new fee structure for space launch and reentry licensing to fund FAA’s work, a significant new policy approach to our nation’s access to space that should not be jammed through the Senate without debate or discussion by our committee.

Also tucked in this bill are unnecessary rescissions of programs that create more jobs in the United States and support U.S. competitiveness to address climate impacts, funding to fast track permitting, investments in weather data and forecasting, travel promotion programs, and other nuggets seeming to undo popular bipartisan programs and settle political scores. This is not the way to legislate.

This Committee has a long history of negotiating major pieces of bipartisan legislation, such as the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021 (included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021), the Endless Frontier Act (included in the Chips and Science Act of 2022), and the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act of 2020. We are more than capable of doing the same with the policies you are proposing in this budget reconciliation text, and we strongly urge you to bring it before the Committee.

Sincerely,

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