Lujan to Chair Senate Communications, Blumenthal for Consumer Protection
Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., is the new Senate Communications Subcommittee chairman, Commerce Committee leaders said Friday. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the subcommittee’s lead Democrat in the last Congress, relinquished the seat in favor of other leadership roles, as expected (see 2101290049). Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota will remain the subcommittee’s lead Republican, also as expected (see 2011020048).
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Lujan’s selection to lead what’s now the Communications, Media and Broadband subpanel was a surprise to many in communications policy circles. They widely expected (see 2101190001) the gavel to go Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. Markey was the lead Democrat on the House Communications Subcommittee for more than two decades until leaving that post in 2009, and he has remained active on telecom policymaking in the Senate. Markey apparently turned down the option to chair Communications in favor of leading an Environment and Public Works Committee subpanel that matches with his role in shaping the Green New Deal climate change legislation, lobbyists said.
Other Communications Democrats who rank ahead of Lujan in seniority chose to either keep existing subcommittee leadership roles or take on other ones, lobbyists said. Lujan was a House Communications member before being elected to the Senate in November and was active in influencing broadband legislation. He was lead sponsor of the Broadband Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan funding plan that made it into a Democratic infrastructure proposal last year (see 2001290052). CTIA and USTelecom congratulated Lujan.
Lujan said he will use his Senate Communications chairmanship to work with Commerce Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to “set the agenda for how the Senate approaches” long-standing “inequities when it comes to Internet connectivity and telecommunications access." That's especially so "in rural and Tribal communities,” made apparent during this pandemic.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will chair the Consumer Protection Subcommittee; he was previously ranking member. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., is the new subcommittee ranking member. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., chaired the subpanel last Congress. Blumenthal said in a statement he plans to “keep fighting … to protect Americans from fraud and abuse.” Consumers “need vigorous voices and champions now more than ever,” he said. “The pandemic has posed dangerous new threats of consumer abuse,” and citizens “are increasingly vulnerable to Big Tech’s egregious exploitation of user data.”
Cantwell and Commerce ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also axed the Security Subcommittee first formed during the last Congress to handle data security issues (see 1901110037). They didn’t explain why. Consumer Protection now has jurisdiction over security matters, the committee said.