Attempt to Tie Broadband Funding to AI Deregulation is Undemocratic and Cruel
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a stunning display of corporate appeasement, the Senate Commerce Committee has tied funding from the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to a requirement that states abandon AI regulation for the next 10 years. Under the committee’s proposal, states would be barred from enforcing their own AI protections as a condition of receiving broadband funds meant to expand internet access to underserved communities.
J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate at Public Citizen, issued the following statement in response:
“This is a senatorial temper tantrum masquerading as policy. Americans have loudly rejected Senator Cruz’s dangerous proposal to give tech giants a decade of immunity from state regulation. State legislatures, attorneys general, and citizens across all 50 states have demanded that Congress step away from overhauling consumer protections put in place in the absence of federal leadership. But instead of listening to the American people, Senate Republicans threw a fit and tied vital digital funding to corporate impunity.
“With this move, Republicans are telling millions of Americans: ‘You can have broadband but only if your state gives up the right to protect you from AI abuses.’ It’s undemocratic and cruel. Republicans would rather give Big Tech a 10-year hall pass to experiment on the American people unchecked, rather than give underserved rural and urban communities the ability to compete in the digital economy. Congress must reject this corporate giveaway and refocus their energy on representing the public interest.”