Bipartisan Senate Leaders Urge House GOP to Stand Up to Tech Companies, Protect Children From Social Media Harms & Pass Kids Online Privacy Legislation Before End of Year

U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chair Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Ranking Member Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), authors of bipartisan bills to protect children online, wrote to House Republican Leaders urging them to pass the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act (KOSPA) package before the end of the year.

FTC Sues Pharmacy Benefit Managers for Inflating Insulin Prices

Today, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the organization filed legal action against the country’s three largest prescription drug benefit managers (PBMs)—Caremark Rx, Express Scripts and OptumRx—for engaging in anti-competitive and unfair practices that inflated the price of insulin drugs, blocked patients’ access to more affordable products and shifted the cost of high insulin list prices to vulnerable patients. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, applauded the FTC’s action:

Senate Overwhelmingly Passes Children’s Online Privacy Legislation

Today, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed the Children and Teens’ Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA 2.0) and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) to better protect children and teens online. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, twice led the passage of the bills through the Committee, and worked tirelessly with bill sponsors, stakeholders and parents whose children were harmed, to build consensus and support necessary to secure Senate approval.

Tech Leaders, AI Innovators Underscore Importance of AI Safety Institute Ahead of Committee Consideration of Cantwell-Young Future of AI Innovation Act

Leading tech organizations, companies and safety policy advocates from across the artificial intelligence (AI) community wrote Commerce Committee leaders today urging passage of the Cantwell-Young Future of AI Innovation Act that would codify the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Cantwell Statement on FTC Action Into Concerning Surveillance Pricing, Calls for Comprehensive Privacy Law

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, released the following statement yesterday after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued orders to eight companies requesting information about their products and services that use personal data to set individual prices for consumers. The orders seek information about the potential impact these practices have on privacy and consumer protection:

Experts Warn Senators AI is Upping the Urgency for Federal Privacy Law

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, convened a hearing this morning with legal, policy and private sector privacy and artificial intelligence (AI) experts to explore how the rapid advancement of AI is accelerating the urgency to pass a federal privacy law.