Commerce Secretary Offers Support to Key Legislative Efforts on Online Regulation

WASHINGTON, April 28, 2022 – Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday that she supports several key policy priorities of committee members, ranging from online economic competition to privacy of youth on social media.

During questioning, Raimondo expressed support for bill S.2992, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which prohibits certain large online platforms from engaging in behavior that discriminates against their competitors. She also welcomed the opportunity to work with Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., on his bill introduced with Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., to strengthen youth protections and ban targeted advertising to children and teens online, which was emphasized by President Joe Biden during his March State of the Union speech.

The support signals backing from a key figure in the Biden administration as the bills move through Congress.

Earlier Wednesday, a coalition of groups including Americans for Prosperity, the Computer and Communications Industry Association, the Consumer Technology Association, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and the U.S. Hispanic Business Council penned a joint letter to congressional leadership raising concerns about antitrust bills such as AICO, saying it would raise retail costs for consumers.

Committed to streamlining access to infrastructure for broadband

During testimony Raimondo also emphasized tenets of the Commerce department’s plan to deploy broadband infrastructure funding from the Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act, stating that the department will not overbuild existing infrastructure. The department’s telecom agency, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, is tasked with distributing $42.5 billion in broadband infrastructure funds to the states.

She also explained that the department will work with state governments to streamline permitting requirements for infrastructure builds and provide more ample access to telephone poles as well as dig-once provisions to make available ready-made buried conduits.

She also called for a government-wide spectrum strategy, stating “we at NTIA have to be more aggressive at that table and we have to have more creative uses of, for example, spectrum sharing.”