Democratic News

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing and Competitiveness, Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) continued to hammer the Trump Administration for its illegal dismantling of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). Today, the Senators asked the GAO to investigate whether actions by Trump Commerce Department officials or others in the Administration violated congressional directives, the extent to which they undermined MBDA’s congressional mandate and whether any officials have

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Democratic Leader Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, called on the Trump Administration to immediately release the $42 billion allocated for the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program as part of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The program was designed with the goal of building high-speed, scalable, and reliable networks everywhere in the United States.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, again demanded that the Trump Administration immediately exempt the National Weather Service (NWS) from its current Federal hiring freeze so that citizens and communities will not be left to fend for themselves without adequate warnings as both hurricane season and wildfire season rapidly approach.

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Senators Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing and Competitiveness, Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) demanded the Trump Administration detail its compliance with a May 13 federal court injunction ordering it to stop the illegal dismantling of the Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) and restore the agency’s personnel and grantmaking capacities.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, joined Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) in reintroducing the bipartisan Orbital Sustainability (ORBITS) Act to establish a first-of-its-kind demonstration program that would reduce the nearly 1 million pieces of space junk in orbit.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, demanded answers from Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting Chairman Peter Feldman on plans to eliminate the Commission and move its functions to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, issued the following statement on the nomination of Admiral Kevin Lunday to be the next Commandant of the United States Coast Guard:

WASHINGTON D.C. –Today, Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, condemned House Republicans’ spectrum auction plan as they advance it to the House floor as part of their reconciliation bill. The senator’s latest warning that the plan could jeopardize U.S. national defense and aviation safety systems came following a Trump social media post yesterday insisting the Republican majority auction 600 MHz regardless of concerns.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee, were joined today by five leaders in the scientific community to decry the devastating impacts of the Trump Administrations proposed 55% cut to the FY 2026 budget of the National Science Foundation.