Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, raised concerns Thursday with the CPB-funded Independent Television Service (ITVS) about its Diversity Development Fund, which provides grants of up to $35,000 to filmmakers of color to develop documentaries for public media. ITVS reports it has funded 156 films via the diversity fund. “Because white filmmakers are facially ineligible for this seed money, the fund runs afoul of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866,” Cruz told ITVS CEO Carrie Lozano in a letter. “I therefore urge you to remove race as an eligibility criterion for” DDF. ITVS “can surely pursue its mandate to ‘expand the diversity and innovativeness’ of public programming without violating the law,” Cruz said. “Presumably, the goal of this racially exclusive funding opportunity is to further CPB’s directive to aid ‘producers of programs addressing the needs and interests of minorities.’ But programming need not be produced exclusively by minorities to address the needs and interests of minorities. Furthermore, ITVS’s requirement that an applicant ‘[i]dentify as a person of color’ violates federal law.” The fund may also “discriminate based on political ideology,” he said: “The ITVS website features an ‘Impact’ page demonstrating how its documentaries ‘inspir[e] audiences to take action’ on politically charged issues like criminal justice reform. These documentaries overwhelmingly reflect a liberal worldview” and “ITVS funds hardly any documentaries from a conservative perspective. A public organization that costs American taxpayers $17 million a year should not be a vehicle for left-wing agitprop.” Cruz wants Lozano to tell him by Feb. 15 whether ITVS will remove "race as an eligibility criterion” for DDF grants and detail how much money the fund has received since 2014. In addition, he wants more information about how ITVS will inject “objectivity and balance” as it decides on content befitting an entity receiving CPB funding. ITVS didn’t immediately comment. Cruz objected in December to CPB rules for member stations’ diverse workforce policies (see 2312110067). CPB CEO Patricia Harrison countered that the organization’s current and former diversity policies for Community Service Grants recipients “do not require any unlawful employment preferences or quotas” and are “no more discriminatory than the policies for federal agencies with which CPB, as a private corporation, voluntarily complies.”

The IRS is not complying with the federal ban on TikTok, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and John Thune, R-S.D., said Tuesday. Some 2,800 devices registered to IRS Criminal Investigation employees as well as IRS computers have access, they said. The Chinese-owned social media app was banned from federal devices in December 2022, when President Joe Biden signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which included the No TikTok on Government Devices Act. A report from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found “devices used by certain IRS employees can access TikTok,” they wrote in a letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel. This potentially exposes information about American taxpayers to the Chinese Communist Party, which has access to TikTok's internal data, they said. The IRS didn't comment.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., signed on Tuesday to the Eyes on the Board Act (S-3074) hoping to limit children's access to social media at school. Under the bill, schools receiving federal E-rate and emergency connectivity fund money must block access to distracting and addictive social media apps or websites on subsidized services, devices and networks. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and two other Republicans filed the measure in October (see 2310180042). It would require schools receiving ECF and E-rate funding to limit screen time, similar to what the Children’s Internet Protection Act already requires. In addition, it would mandate an FCC-created database of schools’ internet safety policies. “Social media is a powerful tool, but spending too much time on it can significantly hurt anybody’s well-being,” Fetterman said in a statement from Senate Commerce Republicans. “It even contributed to my own mental health struggles. Cyberbullying and online harassment are real. We need to make sure that at school, our children are focused on learning, and E-rate will do just that.” Cruz praised Fetterman Tuesday for joining “this bipartisan effort to protect kids in the classroom and give parents information with the transparency needed to know that their children are safe.”

Senate Commerce Committee members Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., urged Congress Monday to advance their Defend Our Networks Act (S-1245), closing a $3.08 billion funding gap for the FCC's Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Reimbursement Program. Filed last year, the bill would reallocate 3% of unspent and unobligated funding from the FY 2021 appropriations omnibus, the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act and other COVID-19 aid packages to make up rip-and-replace's deficit (see 2304210069). Other lawmakers are eyeing directly appropriating the funding amid stalled work on a spectrum legislative package that some hoped could use future FCC auction revenue to repay a proposed loan (see 2311070050). Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., recently proposed paying for rip and replace by authorizing the FCC to reauction the 197 AWS-3 licenses that Dish and affiliated designated entities returned to the agency last year after it denied them $3.3 billion in bidding credits (see 2401240001). “Nearly all of the 85 companies that received approval by the FCC for costs to rip and replace the untrusted equipment are still waiting for their full federal reimbursement,” Fischer and Hickenlooper said in an opinion piece in The Hill. “Communications providers, many of them smaller companies, can’t pay to replace these technologies without help.” Absent more federal funding, “they’ll either refrain from ripping it out or will be forced to shut down parts or all of their networks,” the senators wrote: “We need telecom companies to remove China’s surveillance infrastructure [from cell towers] and replace it with secure equipment, but we can’t force these critical businesses to go broke in the process.” They cited China's spy balloons flying over the U.S. last year as a “sobering surveillance threat. The urgency of its removal cannot be understated.”

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines should direct intelligence agencies to limit purchases of data about Americans when collection of the data meets FTC standards, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wrote in a letter Thursday. Wyden released documents he said confirm that the NSA “buys Americans’ internet records, which can reveal which websites they visit and what apps they use.” He noted the FTC issued a recent order (see 2401090081) holding “that data brokers must obtain Americans’ informed consent before selling their data.” The federal government shouldn’t be “funding and legitimizing a shady industry whose flagrant violations of Americans’ privacy are not just unethical, but illegal,” Wyden wrote. “To that end, I request that you adopt a policy that, going forward, IC elements may only purchase data about Americans that meets the standard for legal data sales established by the FTC.” He urged the DNI to direct agencies to inventory purchased data, determine whether it meets FTC standards, and purge whatever doesn’t. DNI didn’t comment.

AI is valuable for police investigations but carries civil liberty and privacy risks, Senate Criminal Justice Subcommittee Chairman Cory Booker, D-N.J., and ranking member Tom Cotton, R-Ark., agreed Wednesday. The subcommittee discussed AI as a tool in investigations and prosecutions during a hearing. Booker and Cotton didn’t announce legislation on the topic. Instead, they discussed AI's benefits generally, including in facial recognition tools, license plate scanners, gunshot identification and financial crimes tools. Booker admitted he doesn’t always agree with Cotton but said the ranking member is “intellectually honest.” Booker raised concerns about the increased prevalence of surveillance technology in minority communities, saying people living in those areas are more likely to encounter video surveillance and physical stops. He asked whether police can empathize with those concerns. However, Miami Assistant Police Chief Armando Aguilar said video surveillance is “an accepted part of life for all communities throughout” the country. Aguilar claimed the U.S. is second to China in the number of video cameras the average citizen encounters daily, and “most cameras” are owned by private individuals, not government. AI technology is crucial to police departments, and many crimes would go unsolved without it, he said. Cotton said AI technology has helped lead to a faster, more efficient and accurate criminal justice system. Cotton highlighted the benefits of AI technology in child sexual abuse cases, noting how facial recognition helps identify predators.

Senate Telehealth Working Group co-Chair Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and nine other lawmakers urged the Department of Health and Human Services to “work with Congress to ensure that all Medicare beneficiaries have permanent access to telehealth services before the temporary waivers expire on December 31, 2024.” Lawmakers have long supported proposals making permanent the current temporary lift enacted at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (see 2008170064) of some restrictions on Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services and coverage of those services at federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics. “Enacting permanent telehealth legislation will require collaboration between HHS and Congress in the year ahead,” Schatz and the lawmakers said in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “We urge you to communicate to Congress and the public the authorities, appropriations, resources, and other supports needed to achieve this goal.” 2024 will be “a pivotal year for telehealth policy, and it is critical that we enact long-term legislation” before year’s end, the lawmakers said: “Telehealth is a cost-effective way to improve access to care, especially for rural and underserved communities. Telehealth also allows patients to choose a medical provider that best suits their personal medical needs. Medicare beneficiaries have come to rely on expanded access to telehealth and are satisfied with the care they have received. We must provide patients and clinicians long-term certainty about access to care through telehealth.” Others signing the letter included Senate Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif.

House Administration Committee ranking member Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., urged the DOJ Monday to investigate reports “that a party or parties unknown are attempting to confuse and disenfranchise New Hampshire voters using AI-generated robocalls” impersonating President Joe Biden ahead of the state’s Tuesday presidential primary election. The office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella is investigating the robocall, in which an AI-generated voice mimicking Biden says that “it’s important that you save your vote for the November election” and that voting in the Tuesday primary “only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again. Your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.” New Hampshire’s Tuesday Democratic contest is nonbinding, but the GOP primary will award 22 delegates to candidates on a proportional basis. “This clear bid to interfere in the New Hampshire primary demands a thorough investigation and a forceful response from federal officials to deter further AI-based attacks that will disrupt American democracy and disenfranchise American Voters,” Morelle said in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. “If Congress can strengthen law enforcement’s ability to detect and prevent AI-based attempts to subvert our elections, we look forward to working with you to identify and achieve any meaningful and well-defined standards to protect our democracy.” DOJ didn’t immediately comment.

President Joe Biden signed off Friday on a continuing resolution (HR-2872) that averts a partial government shutdown, as expected (see 2401180057), the White House said. The CR funds the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 1. In addition, it funds the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division through March 8.

President Joe Biden is expected to sign a continuing resolution (HR-2872) that would fund the FCC, FTC, NTIA, other Commerce Department agencies and the DOJ Antitrust Division through March 8. Congress passed the measure Thursday. The House voted 314-108 for HR-2872, which would fund the Agriculture Department’s Rural Utilities Service through March 1. The Senate earlier voted 77-18 to approve the measure. The CR, if signed, would avert a partial government shutdown that would otherwise begin late Friday night. The previous CR Congress passed in November funded the FCC, FTC, Commerce and DOJ through Feb. 2, while USDA's appropriation would have expired Friday night (see 2311160070).