▶ 0:31:04Chair Cruz: The commerce committee is called to order. We are going to move a couple of nominations and then the remainder will have to wait until we get members here. We have a couple we can move right now, so I recognize senator cantwell for a motion.
▶ 0:31:15It'S Sen. Cantwell: Mr. -- oh. I move that pn 336, ryan mccormack be favorably reported.
▶ 0:31:43Chair Cruz: Is there a second? The clerk will call the roll. [calling roll]
▶ 0:33:24Chair Cruz: >> the ayes are 22, the nos are six.
▶ 0:33:35Sen. Cantwell: I move that the nomination of daniel edwards to the assistant secretary of transportation be favorably reported.
▶ 0:33:42Chair Cruz: Is there a second? The clerk will call the roll. [calling roll]
▶ 0:35:01Chair Cruz: Wicker is voting in person, aye. The motion is agreed to and the nomination is ordered to be reported favorably. I recognize ranking member cantwell for another motion.
▶ 0:35:15Sen. Cantwell: I move that pn 621 pn 675, pn 676, pn 677, pn 682, pn 697, pn 698 coast guard promotions be favorably reported.
▶ 0:35:32Chair Cruz: Is there a second? All of those in favor say aye. All of those opposed, say no. Nominations are reported to be ordered favorably.
▶ 0:35:47Sen. Cantwell: Mr. chairman, if I -- senator hickenlooper would like to be no on Mr. mccormick.
▶ 0:35:54Chair Cruz: The record will be corrected to so reflect. I now recognize senator thune for a motion.
▶ 0:36:00Sen. Thune: I move that the nomination of john deleeuw to be a member of the national transportation safety board, the nomination of steven haines to be an assistant secretary of commerce, and the nomination of robert harvey to be a federal maritime commission be favorably reported.
▶ 0:36:22Chair Cruz: Is there a second? The clerk will call the roll. [calling roll]
▶ 0:37:35Chair Cruz: The aye's are 13, the you know's are 14.
▶ 0:37:42Sen. Cantwell: We are trying to get through this markup today, but we don't like the process of bundling nominees. We get that we were going to be against them, but we would have liked the opportunity to speak about the ntsb nominee. We don't support replacing the current ntsb agency with new improvements. There is legal litigation going on, but I will put something into the record. But we do object to that process. Thank you.
▶ 0:38:08Chair Cruz: Understood. The motion is agreed to and the nominations are order to be reported favorably. I now move that the sat streamlining -- sat streamlining act is moved. Is there a second?
▶ 0:38:31Sen. Thune: Second.
▶ 0:38:34Chair Cruz: Is there discussion? Senator rosen.
▶ 0:38:39Sen. Rosen: I would like to bring up my amendment two, please. No, sorry, hang on. 3639. Wait. That is right. Amendment two. Sorry about that. I headed in the wrong order. Yes, I'm good.
▶ 0:39:09Chair Cruz: Are you calling up the amendment?
▶ 0:39:12Sen. Rosen: I'm calling up the amendment.
▶ 0:39:14Chair Cruz: I thought it was going to be offered and withdrawn?
▶ 0:39:17Sen. Rosen: I would like to make a statement. Thank you. I would like to call up rose and amendment two and withdraw it. Last week we received reports that elon musk' a spacex was seeking to exempt itself from critical requirements, including performance testing, network installation, and reserving capacity in its network.
▶ 0:39:39Sen. Rosen: The provisions outlined in the contract writer say that spacex is in contradiction to the rules in tia released last year and inconsistent with the statute creating itself. Mr. musk only now wants to change the rules after he has won bids. Allowing musk to rewrite rules is a betrayal of the letter and spirit of the law as well as the americans we spent -- stand to connect.
▶ 0:40:05Sen. Rosen: I will state or in tia know if americans are getting connected if the only places it can be tested for network performance are places that spacex determines? How can we ensure their services using taxpayer money appropriately when the company wants to exempt itself from reporting on how they spend the funds? We can't let the benefit of the bargain only benefit big corporations owned by administration.
▶ 0:40:35Sen. Rosen: I refuse to let the program be corrupted to find hundreds of millions of dollars to one company at the expense of all taxpayers while leaving rural americans behind. Rural americans in my state and across the country. The program was meant to be a once in the generation investment to close the digital divide.
▶ 0:40:53Sen. Rosen: My amendment would protect the integrity of this program by ensuring any satellite provider must comply with the bid out rules in the infrastructure law for them to use the streamlined process under this bill. Mr. chairman, I'm willing to withdraw my amendment if you would commit to having in tia engage with members of this committee, either a briefing or a meeting on the starlink writer and how they plan to uphold the integrity of the program.
▶ 0:41:24Chair Cruz: And we are happy to arrange that discussion.
▶ 0:41:27Sen. Rosen: Thank you, Mr. chairman. Amendment withdrawn. >> if I can be heard, I want to thank the chair for giving that assurance, and to associate myself with any of the remarks made by the senator from nevada. Because there is a concern among rural americans that perhaps the buildout will somehow disadvantage the least-populated
▶ 0:41:59Sen. Rosen: Areas. I appreciate her offering the amendment and withdrawing it and appreciate the chair's assurance.
▶ 0:42:04Chair Cruz: If senator wicker would like to be part of that briefing and discussion as well, he is certainly welcome to participate. >> thank you, sir.
▶ 0:42:14Sen. Cantwell: I would like to call up cantwell three.
▶ 0:42:18Chair Cruz: Ok. I think we have lost our quorum. We are no longer able to move that. Ok. Proceed with the amendment.
▶ 0:42:42Sen. Cantwell: I call up cantwell amendment three. This would simply struck the automatic approval from the bill. As it currently is written in the text it means that the fcc does not act fast enough, the application is approved default. No review, no safeguards. Just the ability to move forward. The space economy is moving and I want to keep it that way.
▶ 0:43:01Sen. Cantwell: I should note for my colleagues that about 50% of all satellites built in the united states are built in redmond, washington, so trust me I want to build more satellites and I want to get them up into our continued advancement as soon as possible.
▶ 0:43:19Sen. Cantwell: But we are talking about mega-constellations of thousands of satellites sharing spectrum with aviation, gps, weather forecasting, emergency services, national security operations. And that is exactly the moment where we need to get this process right, not abandon it. Just this week an application landed in front of the fcc for one million satellites. One million satellites. Just think about it today.
▶ 0:43:48Sen. Cantwell: We have about 9000 satellites, so we have a proposal in front of the fcc now by spacex for one million satellites. Literally the fcc could fail to take any action on this and within 1.5 years one million satellites would be approved.
▶ 0:44:07Sen. Cantwell: That is 66 times more than everything in current orbit and under this bill, as you can see from our colleagues, we are trying to do stuff about cleaning up the airspace in general -- under this bill the fcc cannot process -- if it cannot process the application within 18 months it is approved. The fcc reviews these applications for reason.
▶ 0:44:27Sen. Cantwell: Mostly because of interference to protect the safety of live services and screen for national security risks and ensure these constellations serve the public. Automatic approval does not speed up that review, it simply eliminates it. If we think -- think the fcc is too slow, let's fix the process.
▶ 0:44:48Sen. Cantwell: I would offer more language this morning, but we are not trying to ultimately prohibit the bill for moving, we are just saying we think this process where you take care of the ground stations, that seems to be the biggest backlog at the fcc now, is something to focus on and that is what our house colleagues did in their proposal. But the answer is not just to run out the clock. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
▶ 0:45:21Chair Cruz: I think the ranking member. I will make several observations. One, this underlining bill is bipartisan. It is both republican and democrat. Number two, this is a real problem, needing to streamline the satellite approvals at the fcc, as the ranking member noted. There is a considerable backlog. Number three, the demand is only increasing. It is increasing significantly and it is increasing in the face of competition from china.
▶ 0:45:47Chair Cruz: In january the chinese filed at the itu to launch thousand satellites. Adverse countries are launching their satellites regardless of anything we do, and if we are going to continue to lead in space and in particular to be china, we need to be able to move with speed and to be agile. Nothing in this proposal limits the fcc's ability to deny an application.
▶ 0:46:17Chair Cruz: The fcc can say no to one satellite or million satellites. Nothing prohibits the fcc's ability to grant the application. All this is doing is speeding up the process, which is a commonsense step. I will also note that the language about deemed granted, similar languages and -- was in the house bill that was voted out of enc unanimously with every republican and democrat supporting it. I am hopeful the ranking member has said she wants to work together on this.
▶ 0:46:47Chair Cruz: I believe that to be the case and so I'm happy to continue working with her on it, but I think the objective of speeding up these applications should be a bipartisan objective and one we should be able to support.
▶ 0:46:57Sen. Cantwell: Mr. chairman, if I could? We should, the house bill does not have the -- does have the language we are seeking, but that is not included in your draft. So, that is the proposal. It strikes me very much like the ai approach. You're going to get a federal standard.
▶ 0:47:20Sen. Cantwell: Here we are trying to say, throughout the standards and say that here is the issue, we are just going to deem a million satellites approved in a year and a half if nothing else happens. I think it is a bad precedent. I believe this race of communications to space is going to be a national security issue. It is definitely going to be a weather issue. It is deafly going to be a communications issue.
▶ 0:47:50Sen. Cantwell: So, I'm very anxious about a process, particularly with interference, that just says, negligence by the fcc it's you your permits for one million satellites. So, again, I urge my colleagues to support the cantwell amendment.
▶ 0:48:04Chair Cruz: I would note, the way the bill is drafted it creates one set of rules for all satellites, which I think makes sense and is fair. And is the right way to approach it. Having separate rules, I understand today sometimes politics is a reality and the words elon musk because strong feelings in my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.
▶ 0:48:29Chair Cruz: He is nonetheless an extraordinary innovator who is producing technology that is making a difference in the country. I think the uniform rules ought to apply to everyone and not have an elon musk exception for negative treatment because of perceptions in the political arena.
▶ 0:48:44Sen. Cantwell: Mr. chairman, if I could. I just pointed out that 50% of the satellites being built are being built in my state, so that is both starlink and kuiper. Starlink is way ahead, so we are all for that. We are all for them continuing their great expertise. We are for us getting a strategy that works.
▶ 0:49:07Sen. Cantwell: But that strategy without rules is not the process that is going to protect us on national security and on whether safety in the air -- interference issues that are going to continue to be perceived. I don't think we are going to come to an agreement this morning but certainly would like to. If millie think there are ways to do this.
▶ 0:49:29Sen. Cantwell: The point about the house link which is that half of that backlog, or more than half, is related to ground, basically, stations. The ground stations, a lot of less concern about interference. Lots of ways you can expedite that, because there are not the same issues. Happy to expedite that today.
▶ 0:49:55Sen. Cantwell: Happy to accept that language from the house and expedite that today, but I do not think that is what your side is willing to do, so let's just have our votes and do whatever we are going to do and figure out how to reconvene and get somewhere on this issue.
▶ 0:50:08Chair Cruz: Does the ranking member one a roll call vote on the amendment?
▶ 0:50:12Sen. Cantwell: I don't know what that means are here but I'm happy to accept it because we started the debate. So, yes, but can we have a vote? Can we have a vote or no? No votes? Ok, so we had a good debate. We will continue the debate. Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 0:50:28Chair Cruz: Before we recess, senator young, I understand you wanted to raise something?
▶ 0:50:35Sen. Young: I serve as the chair of the national security commission for emerging biotechnology. Last year we released our recommendations for legislation to advance and secure american leadership in biotechnology for purposes of national and economic security. One of these recommendations was to charge the national science foundation with creating a network of clout laboratories to make the data generation easier.
▶ 0:51:07Sen. Young: In president trump's ai action plan there was an additional emphasis on why we should make these critical investments in automated cloud laboratories. That is why last year I along with senator kim introduced the cloud lab act this legislation would build out the cloud lab ecosystem with new scientific investments in infrastructure to establish a greater cloud lab presence in the united states.
▶ 0:51:37Sen. Young: A longer-term strategy for american leadership in research and development, especially for about a leges. While we are not moving my legislation or any cloud-related , lab-related legislation today wee hours ring thinning the cloud lab ecosystem with the national programmable cloud laboratories network act, as we follow from these proceedings today.
▶ 0:52:06Sen. Young: From senators federman and god -- budd. I think them for working with me on my amendment, which I believe strengthens their legislation. The amendment would require that at least one cloud laboratory node established under the federman bill focus on biotechnology-related capabilities.
▶ 0:52:28Sen. Young: It would also add a new definition of dialogical data and incorporate targeted references to biotechnology and biological data throughout the bill. We cannot allow our adversaries, particularly china, to outpace the united states in biotechnology, making it imperative that the committee focus on strengthening cloud laboratories and biotechnology capabilities. Thank you again, Mr. chairman. I yield back.
▶ 0:52:55Chair Cruz: Thank you, senator young, and we will be taking up the sat streamlining bill and the remaining bills on the markup when we reconvene and have a full quorum, we do not at present. And so, if the ranking member wants to comment, sure.
▶ 0:53:13Sen. Cantwell: I just wanted to take a moment. Today is three years since the norfolk southern train derailment in east palestine, ohio. Still remember those individuals affected by this, and east palestine ohio on this date, february 3. 38 railcars carrying hazardous material left the track. These people of east palestine and the surrounding community of darlington suffered from those materials in their water and soil, and burning in the air.
▶ 0:53:45Sen. Cantwell: In this accident happened the president, all of us said they would not be forgotten. We still have work to do and I hope we will continue to remember them on this day and the work that still needs to be done. Thank you.
▶ 0:53:56Chair Cruz: Very good. And we will be reconvening shortly, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, before the autonomous vehicle hearing. And with that, the hearing is adjourned.