Congress

Ted Cruz’s Commerce Committee devolves over migrant-related subpoena

Published

1 year ago

March 5, 2025

Members of the Senate Commerce Committee, led by Sen. Ted Cruz, clashed in a rancorous hearing Wednesday morning over the GOP’s push to subpoena documents from the Massachusetts Port Authority related to its sheltering of migrants in Boston Logan Airport.

It was an unusually testy meeting for a panel that has long prided itself on being bipartisan and subdued — and provided a preview of the type of fireworks that could become the norm with the firebrand Texas Republican wielding the gavel.

“Going back at least 20 years, the chair and ranking member of this committee typically work together and reach consensus on subpoenas being issued because there is no question the matter being investigated is improper or the party being investigated was not being cooperative,” said ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Up until July, the Massachusetts Port Authority — or Massport — had permitted migrants to sleep at the airport as the state lacked the sufficient number beds at official shelters to house the flow of immigrants coming into the region. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, then prohibited the practice, but migrants have reportedly been continuing to stay there.

Jennifer Mehigan, a spokesperson for Massport, said in a statement that “no families have stayed at the airport” since Healey’s order and that it is “working closely with the Committee and appreciate their patience as we gather the documents to voluntarily comply fully with their request.”

But Cruz is unsatisfied, saying he must resort to efforts to subpoena documents as the Port Authority refused to comply with his request for information. On Wednesday, Cruz accused Massport of violating federal grant requirements.

“In recent years, the Senate has allowed our oversight muscles to atrophy. Oversight rarely occurs in our standing committees, and I believe our country is worse off for it. … It’s a front where I will continue to lead as chairman,” Cruz said. “Massport apparently believes that the Senate has no jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

The committee recessed before members could vote to allow for the subpoena, lacking a quorum to proceed. Members plan to return later in the day Wednesday to approve Cruz’s subpoena request, which is expected to be advanced along party lines.

Before then, Democrats fiercely objected to the exercise. They argued the issue has already been resolved, the subpoena effort was premature and Cruz has not yet exhausted all his options to get the information he is seeking. They said that Massport has promised to respond in writing to Cruz’s requests by March 10 and that the subpoena undermines the committee’s tradition of bipartisanship.

Cruz is already working to expand his own subpoena authority as committee chair to allow him to issue unilateral subpoenas without buy-in from the ranking member or even a full committee vote. It would be a major break in precedent that has given some Republicans and members of the White House pause, particularly as Cruz has promised to haul in Big Tech CEOs with whom members of the Trump administration are cozy.

In an interview, Cruz sidestepped whether he was still seeking that expansive authority, which would require a vote to change the committee rules: “We’re going to exercise subpoena power to carry out our oversight responsibilities. The committee will be vigorous on oversight.”

Back in the committee hearing room on Wednesday, Cruz and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) sparred extensively over the subpoena vote, at times raising their voices. Markey said Cruz’s investigation into his home state was a “fishing expedition.”

Cruz fired back: “Apparently the senator from Massachusetts believes it is a fishing expedition to want to know and if violent criminal illegal aliens threaten or actually committed acts of violence against the traveling public.”

The committee did, however, vote to adopt an amendment from Markey that would allow the committee to examine the circumstances around Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to send asylum-seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard rather than to Florida, DeSantis’ state, where the immigrants were trying to go. Markey was attempting to challenge Cruz and his fellow Republicans to shine a light on his own party’s practices when it comes to sheltering immigrants, but Cruz didn’t take the bait.

“This amendment raises an important point,” Cruz said, citing legislation he introduced in 2021 to send migrants from Texas to other states including California and Massachusetts — places where “rich liberals sip Chardonnay” and “don’t want 12 million people invading them.”

Cruz also on Wednesday said he canceled another vote on issuing subpoenas for the online service provider Bonterra, which he argues has deplatformed conservatives, and for the consulting firm Newpoint Strategies related to diversity training for federal workers. Both entities complied with the requests for information, Cruz explained.

Congress

Gottheimer readies AI bill to vet powerful AI models for risk

Published

6 hours ago

June 18, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Rep. Josh Gottheimer is preparing to introduce a bill mandating that some artificial intelligence companies submit their powerful new models to the government to screen for national security, critical infrastructure, cybersecurity and bioterror risks.

It comes as fear grips Washington over new AI models, such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos, that could turbocharge existential risks posed by the emerging technology — such as enabling bad actors to engineer superviruses or create deadly bioweapons.

Gottheimer’s forthcoming legislation, details of which the New Jersey Democrat shared exclusively with Blue Light News, would run parallel to a bipartisan effort in the House to craft federal rules governing the technology, and comes as the White House considers a voluntary vetting regime for powerful new models.

Relatedly, the Trump administration decided on Friday to impose export controls on Anthropic’s latest models over national security concerns. Gottheimer told Blue Light News that threats identified from models such as Anthropic’s Mythos “highlighted how critically important it is that we have a mandatory process for the government to review advanced models”.

The coming proposal represents one of the most aggressive attempts yet by a key AI policymaker to mitigate potentially catastrophic risks posed by the fast-moving technology.

Gottheimer, a moderate self-styled dealmaker who has been eager to reach an agreement with Republicans on a national AI framework, currently co-chairs a new Democratic commission convened by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries that’s been tasked with developing his party’s official AI policy agenda.

The commission swiftly blasted the discussion draft from Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) unveiled in June, saying it failed “to meet the enormity of the moment.”

That bipartisan framework would override some state AI laws and require top developers to disclose the safety and security risks of their new models. It also would tap the Center for AI Standards and Innovation — an office within the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology — to support voluntary model evaluations.

Gottheimer added that his proposal is currently under review by the House Legislative Counsel, which ensures a policy is consistent with existing laws, and is speaking with both Democrats and Republicans to rally support.

Congress

Trump escalates his war on Senate Republicans — and senators are striking back

Published

8 hours ago

June 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump is making life almost impossible for Senate Republicans — and these days fewer of them are willing to just let it slide.

Some lawmakers that were once happy to brush off impulsive and disruptive behavior by saying they hadn’t seen the president’s social media posts or that it was just “Trump being Trump” are increasingly willing to speak out against what they view as bad decisions that undermine their ability to deliver legislative wins as the midterms approach.

The latest irritation was the early-morning Truth Social post Wednesday that upended GOP hopes of quickly confirming a new director of national intelligence and reviving a surveillance bill that Trump already derailed earlier this month.

The chaos that followed Trump’s sudden U-turn on Jay Clayton’s nomination, just hours before a scheduled confirmation hearing, further loosened tongues in the Capitol hallways — even from lawmakers who tend to be reliable allies.

“The president’s timing and communication needs improvement,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “I think it’s unfortunate. It throws a kicker into the system when we get going and then we have to readjust.”

Asked about frustration within the conference about the recent lack of coordination, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) added, “Well, duh.”

Kennedy added, “No, I don’t,” when asked if Trump takes senators into consideration: “He wants what he wants, and until he gets it, he just keeps pushing.”

The public frustrations are bubbling up at a crucial moment for Trump and Republicans more broadly. The president sent his wee-hours missive from France, where he was meeting with global leaders at the annual G7 conference and seeking to sell an Iran peace deal that many in his party despise.

Trump has faced recent pushback on several fronts in the Senate, with Republicans foiling plans to fund part of his White House ballroom project in a recent immigration funding deal and forcing the Justice Department to abandon plans for a $1.8 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” that could compensate Trump allies.

The president’s frequent demands that the Senate abandon its longstanding filibuster rule to pass more legislation along party lines, including a controversial elections overhaul, have also gone unheeded — adding to Trump’s obvious frustration.

He has now responded on several occasions by simply infuriating GOP senators who believe they are on the precipice of delivering a legislative win — only for Trump to suddenly pull the rug out from under them.

His announcement of the DOJ payout fund, for instance, delayed and nearly killed a critical immigration funding bill. And his decision to tap Bill Pulte, a close political ally who heads a housing agency, as acting director of national intelligence blew up a brewing three-year deal on reauthorizing a key piece of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who announced his retirement last year after breaking with Trump on policy legislation, said the dynamic is “undermining our ability to produce the very results he wants.”

“Look, we are not the manufacturing department of the Article II branch — we are the board of directors for the Article II branch,” he said. “You start treating us like that, coordinating with us like that, we won’t have these embarrassing setbacks.”

Trump’s decision to call off Clayton’s appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee came as Republicans believed he was on track to be confirmed as soon as Thursday. That, they believed, would allow for an extension of the spy law — something administration officials had previously argued is crucial to protect Americans amid the World Cup and ongoing America 250 celebrations.

Instead, Clayton and the FISA reauthorization have become the latest tension point between Trump and the Senate, with the president again hammering Republicans for not passing the partisan elections bill known as the SAVE America Act, while also needling them about refusing to blow up the filibuster and the internal rules granting home-state senators deference on some presidential nominees.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune has expressed his own frustrations in a more understated way than others in the GOP ranks.

Normally chatty with reporters, Thune was unusually tight-lipped Wednesday, saying that Senate Republicans would have to figure out the path forward on Clayton and the surveillance law “one day at a time” and that his relationship with Trump was “fine” amid the public turmoil.

“The president has his own mind, makes his own decisions, so do we,” Thune said.

He later explained in an interview that the White House and Senate Republicans do a “fair amount of coordination.” “But sometimes you get surprised,” he added. “It’s a business model the White House employs, and we’ve had to figure out how to be adaptable.”

The White House said in a statement that Trump has worked closely with Senate Republicans on the party’s agenda over the past year, including last year’s $4.5 trillion tax cut and the immigration enforcement bill passed earlier this year.

“We look forward to continuing these close relationships and fulfilling President Trump’s priorities that Americans elected him to enact,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, said in the statement.

Thune and Trump developed a good working relationship at the outset of the president’s second term, a turnaround from tensions that emerged in the period after Trump’s 2020 election loss that included him calling for a primary challenge to Thune in 2022. Several Senate Republicans praised Thune Wednesday for trying to keep the conference focused and said they didn’t believe Trump’s salvos were personal.

“Hating Thune would be like hating golden retrievers. You can’t dislike Thune. I don’t think the president dislikes him,” Kennedy said, while adding that Trump is fixated on the elections bill: “I just think he wants what he wants, and he continues to push. I just don’t think in this instance he’s likely to get it.”

Several other members identified the SAVE America Act as a persistent friction point despite GOP senators showing over and over again that the bill doesn’t have the votes to pass in the Senate. They are eager for Trump, and some of their own colleagues, to turn their focus from infighting to hammering Democrats heading into November.

Senate Republicans, according to two people granted anonymity to describe a private meeting, directly criticized Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) during a closed-door lunch Wednesday over setting unrealistic expectations about passing the bill.

Without naming Lee, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took a jab afterward at those “making unrealistic promises and then when they’re not obtained, criticizing one another.”

Cornyn, who lost his bid for renomination to a fifth term this month after Trump endorsed his opponent, also acknowledged the president was the source of “some frustration” inside the Senate GOP around “basically being able to function.”

Congress

Pence-backed think tank joins push to keep kids’ safety bills out of AI package

Published

11 hours ago

June 17, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

More than a dozen groups including former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom are urging Senate Commerce Committee leaders to reject efforts to attach kids’ online safety measures to a national artificial intelligence framework, according to a letter shared exclusively with Blue Light News.

The groups argue that the proposed measures could undermine users’ free speech rights while creating new risk to privacy and data security. Their push comes as lawmakers weigh broader AI legislation, and follows reports last week that Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is working with the White House to shore up support for a kids’ safety package that could ultimately preempt some state laws on AI.

The Blackburn-led measure is expected to include the Senate version of the Kids Online Safety Act, which includes a “duty of care” requiring companies to design their products with an eye toward preventing harm to children, the NO FAKES Act and the App Store Accountability Act. It’s not yet clear how aggressively it would preempt state action on narrow issues such as verifying users’ ages on social media.

Think tanks including the libertarian R Street Institute, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and industry group NetChoice, are among the 13 total signatories. They take issue primarily with ASAA, which would require app store platforms such as Google and Apple to verify users’ ages, and KOSA.

The coalition is alarmed by age verification requirements that could require users to submit personal information to digital databases vulnerable to data breaches and hacks. It also takes issue with parental consent provisions, which would “inevitably require even more intrusive data gathering to prove both the identity of the parent and his or her status as the child’s legal guardian,” the letter reads.

KOSA is also problematic, according to the coalition, because of its duty of care provision. It argues this would infringe on users’ First Amendment speech rights by “requiring online platforms to suppress certain kinds of content.”

Meta helped kill KOSA two years ago after raising similar free speech concerns with the bill to Speaker Mike Johnson, though it has since dropped its opposition because Blackburn’s package is expected to include language preempting state AI laws, as POLITICO exclusively reported Tuesday.