Cantwell Shines a Light on the Ugly in Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill
June 30, 2025
“Anytime you can get the Center for American Progress and the Heritage Foundation on the same side of an issue, chances are you should be listening to what they have to say.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a speech tonight on the Senate Floor, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, highlighted the damaging impact of provisions included by Committee-Chair Senator Cruz in the 940-page Republican reconciliation bill, including a 10-year moratorium on State regulation of AI and the auction of spectrum critical to national security and aviation safety. Highlights of her remarks:
Democrats and Republicans agree: This bill is bad for consumer protection and will leave Americans vulnerable to AI-assisted harms.
“My colleague from Texas is proposing an AI moratorium. He literally wants to stop states from regulating the rollout of autonomous vehicles like Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who signed a [law] last week to regulate how autonomous vehicles are licensed and deployed in Texas. And how do proponents of this moratorium propose to get started? By holding broadband money hostage unless you implement an AI moratorium.
“The Heritage Foundation said that ‘federal AI power grab could end state protection for kids and workers.’ Again, you are giving states a big fat bill, and now you're trying to override laws that have been on the books for a long time, protecting consumers from fraud, from abuse and they are there to protect kids, and now you want to get rid of them. So it's no surprise that stakeholders on the right and left oppose this in the bill -- they include 17 Republican governors and 40 attorneys general -- both Democrats and Republicans and other organizations ranging from the Heritage Foundation to the Center for American Progress. So anytime you can get the Center for American Progress and the Heritage Foundation on the same side of an issue, chances are you should be listening to what they have to say.
“[T]his letter, I would like to enter into the record from the National Association of Attorneys General. This bill would affect hundreds -- I'm quoting now from this letter – ‘this bill would affect hundreds of existing and pending state laws passed and considered by both Republican and Democratic state legislatures. Some existing laws have been on the books for many years.’ Okay, so these are attorneys general from a variety of states who basically know the laws on their books, and they're basically saying, Don't do this to us. Don't override our laws.”
This bill is bad for the U.S. and good for China.
“I'd also like to enter into the record, Mr. President, a letter from 17 Republican governors also against this provision. Their letter I'd like to read from is really about this point I was trying to make about fighting China. I mean, I thought we were here to be competitive against them, to basically beat them in a race on innovation, just like we did with CHIPS & Science to try to move for the future. But basically, their letter says, ‘We fully recognize that AI is dominant in the next industrial competition between the United States and adversaries like Communist China. States have led anti-communist China action banning Chinese-affiliated companies from owning farmland and property critical for infrastructure and military bases. But America should not sacrifice the health and safety and prosperity of its people in this fight. We must curb AI's worst excesses while also encouraging growth, which is exactly what states have done through their creation of their own regulatory framework.’ So they're basically saying the states are on the front lines of helping to protect on AI.
“Now, Mr. President, I have no idea why the President of the United States has not protected the American people or the American military from the Chinese scams that are happening on Tiktok. We would never let China own ABC News and put out Chinese Communist propaganda on ABC News, but we let them do that on Tiktok. This body and our colleagues said, no, stop that and stop the Chinese. And yet we still haven't stopped the Chinese. So now here we are in this bill cutting out the states' abilities to fight Chinese AI companies like DeepSeek or Alibaba -- and they have no interest in stopping the scammers from using their AI products to harm Americans. They have none. And if you think we're going to pass something here – I’m always ready to sign up to get legislation done – but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. And so now you're telling these governors, these attorneys general, ‘yep, I'm not even going to let you fight China, because I'm going to take that tool away from you.’ So clearly, I don't support this part of the legislation, and I appreciate my colleague from Tennessee and her attorney general working on this very important issue.”
This bill is bad for our national defense and great for AT&T.
“And finally, I come to the issue of spectrum. This is a very ill-conceived plan to auction off our precious spectrum. Such an auction will fundamentally compromise our defense capabilities, while endangering aviation and important federal capabilities like weather forecasting and scientific research. This bill would require an auction of 800 megahertz of spectrum critical to our military and civilian infrastructure. It would compromise military radio frequencies and weather and other spectrum issues, most importantly, drone operations. And I know the presiding officer knows how much drones are now at the epicenter and forefront of warfare and is reshaping the battlefields across the globe.
“So why would we do this?
“Well, my colleague Senator Cruz is pushing for something that experts say would risk military operations. Last Congress, we got the Department of Defense and the Department of Commerce to agree that we should test bed the next generation of technology because we don't like interference. Now, I'm sure most Americans sitting at home thinking, ‘what is she talking about?’ Well, if you drive in a car and you have a radio station and all of a sudden, the radio station doesn't get its signal or has some interference, you know that there is an issue. The tower -- not big enough, not strong enough -- this is the same.
“This radio spectrum has been used by [the] Department of Defense for secure purposes, very important secure purposes. Mr. President, think of the Chinese balloon, and the fact that we want to detect when a Chinese balloon is flying through our airspace. We want to be able to stop people from spying on the United States of America. And yet, instead of basically saying ‘we are going to look at this military spectrum and make sure that it continues to be secure,’ my colleague is suggesting to all of us that we sell that and basically allow, I believe, what is going to be a good amount of interference without solving this problem first.
“Why does that bother me? Because I think we live in a world where you're going to see more and more spectrum, more and more warfare based on satellite and communication, and the landscape is changing. So I certainly don't want our military preparedness to be affected. Air Force leaders warned that spectrum bands are crucial to radar operations – and I'm not going to go into more about why – but…just like you can't have four radio stations basically interfering with each other, my colleagues want to allow the major telcos, mostly AT&T and Verizon, who are so hungry to sell more, whatever it is, $79.99 plans or $59.99 plans, they literally are going to give away national security just so they can sell more telephone plans.”
Sen. Cantwell and organizations and individuals from across the political spectrum have been fighting against these provisions for weeks.
10 More Organizations, 10 More Reasons to Oppose 10-Year AI Moratorium
10 Organizations, 10 Different Reasons to Oppose the 10-Year AI Moratorium
Cantwell Statement on GOP Spectrum Auction Proposal
House GOP Spectrum Giveaway Would Punch a Gaping Hole in U.S. National Defenses, Cantwell Warns
Cantwell Asks Duffy About Risks of GOP Spectrum Auction Plan to Aviation Safety
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