MARIA CANTWELL

Placeholder while article actions loadA top Democratic senator poured cold water Wednesday on the prospect of a landmark bipartisan privacy bill advancing this Congress as written, dealing a significant blow to long-stalled efforts to pass federal protections for consumers’ personal data. Choose your plan ArrowRight Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), whose panel controls the fate of any data privacy bill, told The Washington Post that she’s not close to supporting a major proposal recently unveiled by Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate. AdvertisementLawmakers including Cantwell have tried to hash out a deal on a bipartisan privacy law for years, amid mounting concerns over the data protection practices of Silicon Valley giants, to little avail. The bill, formally introduced Tuesday, marked the most substantial development in the push to pass federal privacy standards in years. But Cantwell’s objections serve as a major hurdle toward the proposal’s chance of becoming law.

In a draft letter obtained by CNBC, the Chamber of Commerce urges congressional leaders not to move forward with the American Data Privacy and Protection Act.

The unveiling of the draft legislation marks progress in a years-long effort.

Alaska Pebble Mine FILE - In this July 13, 2007, photo, workers with the Pebble Mine project test drill in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, near the village of Iliamma. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing restrictions that would hinder plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region. The EPA has said the Bristol Bay region supports the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world and that it also contains significant mineral resources. The EPA during the Obama administration proposed restrictions on large-scale mining in the region but they were never finalized. Critics of the proposed Pebble Mine have been pressing the EPA to provide protections for the Bristol Bay region.

Alaska Pebble Mine FILE - In this July 13, 2007, photo, workers with the Pebble Mine project test drill in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, near the village of Iliamma. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing restrictions that would hinder plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska's Bristol Bay region. The EPA has said the Bristol Bay region supports the largest sockeye salmon fishery in the world and that is also contains significant mineral resources. The EPA during the Obama administration proposed restrictions on large-scale mining in the region but they were never finalized. In 2019, the EPA withdrew the proposed restrictions, removing what it called an “outdated, preemptive proposed veto of the Pebble Mine.” That move was challenged in court.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing restrictions that would block plans for a copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region.

College sports leaders visited Capitol Hill, asking lawmakers to consider rules to govern name, image and likeness money for college athletes.

The commissioners of the Southeastern Conference and the Pac-12 are scheduled to meet with lawmakers in Washington They will lobby for federal legislation to regulate name, image and likeness compensation to athletes.

Congress Gas Prices Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, listens to a reporter during a press conference about gas prices, Thursday, April 28, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democrats accused oil companies of "ripping off the American people" at a contentious hearing this month with oil industry executives. “Congress must do more to beef up the FTC’s ability to crack down on potential gas price manipulation and price gouging,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday. On the consumer and lowering gas prices? “Energy prices are determined by supply and demand, not false accusations of ‘price gouging’ motivated by the upcoming election instead of the facts.

Democratic leaders have announced an effort to give the Federal Trade Commission increased authority to crack down on oil and gas companies that engage in price gouging.

President Biden has nominated Adm. Linda Fagan to serve as the next commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard. Fagan, who has served on all seven continents, is currently the Coast Guard's second-in-command.

Adm. Linda Fagan Coast Guard Rear Admiral Linda Fagan attends the screening of THE FINEST HOURS on January 28, 2016 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images for Allied Integrated Marketing) (Paul Marotta)WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has nominated Adm. Linda Fagan to lead the U.S. Coast Guard. She will be the first woman to lead a U.S. military service, USNI News reported. BREAKING: @POTUS nominates Adm. Linda Fagan to lead @USCG. Adm. Fagan will become the 1st woman to lead any branch of the Armed Services.

Democratic Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico is back in Congress.

Sen. Warren urged the SEC and Justice Department to look into potential wire fraud and securities laws violations.

The risk of collisions in space, the fate of the United States in orbit after the space station retires and continuing debates over NASA's path back to the moon dominated a two-hour hearing on Thursday (Oct. 21) held by a Senate committee focused on space and science.

It's summertime and airports are packed with vacationers again.

A U.S. Senate panel has deadlocked on President Joe Biden’s pick to oversee vast government-owned lands in the West amid bitter opposition from Republicans.

A bitterly divided U.S. Senate panel deadlocked Thursday on President Joe Biden’s pick to oversee vast government-owned lands in the West, as Democrats united behind a nominee whose credibility was assailed by Republicans over her links to a 1989 environmental sabotage case. It would take every Senate Republican plus at least one Democratic lawmaker to block her confirmation in the evenly divided chamber. At stake is the leadership of the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees energy production, grazing, mining, recreation and other activities across almost a quarter-billion acres of public lands, primarily in the West.

She wrote that she is concerned by reports that have highlighted the role of worker shortages in a surge of delayed and canceled flights. Since March 2020, when the pandemic began to crush air travel, Congress has approved $54 billion to keep airline workers employed. Delta said it will hire between up to 5,000 workers this year to reduce long hold times for customers who call the airline and to deal with workers shortages at contractors such as food caterers and airplane cleaners. It blamed recent delays on summer thunderstorms and technology “challenges” last month that led to an unusually high number of delays and flight cancelations. The number of people flying in the U.S. bottomed out at less than 100,000 a day in April 2020.

A key senator wants to know whether labor shortages are causing delayed and canceled flights at major U.S. airlines.

As the Pacific Northwest swelters in an unprecedented heat wave, an electrical utility in the Washington state city of Spokane has announced that more rolling blackouts have started that will cut off electricity and air conditioning to some customers.

Six decades after University of California forestry professor Harold Biswell experimented with prescribed burns and was treated with ridicule, he is seen as someone whose ideas could save the U.S. West’s forests and ease wildfire dangers.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill that would allocate nearly $250 billion to American scientific and technical research — including $10 billion for NASA to fund private crewed moon landers.

A federal law governing how college athletes can earn money off their fame seems like a certainty.

The Senate has confirmed geneticist Eric Lander to be President Joe Biden’s chief science adviser.

The American Innovation and Competition Act, an effort to boost scientific research and development, is key to President Joe Biden's infrastructure plans. Its passage was still expected despite the GOP efforts to impede it, but timing was uncertain as the Senate reopened Friday morning after a nearly round-the clock session. “We have every intention of sticking it out until the job is done,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said as he opened the chamber. Taken together, the innovation act has been a priority for Schumer, the Democratic leader who has long advocated a tougher approach to China. He and Young struck up a conversation about teaming up on a bill during workouts at the Senate gym, lawmakers said.

Senators slogged through days of debates and amendments, but proceedings came to a standstill late Thursday. One Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, protested the rush to finish and insisted on more changes to the sprawling package. Other measures spell out national security concerns and target money laundering schemes or cyberattacks by entities on behalf of the government of China. Taken together, the innovation act has been a priority for Schumer, the Democratic leader who has long advocated a tougher approach to China. He and Young struck up a conversation about teaming up on a bill during workouts at the Senate gym, lawmakers said.

The Senate is set to approve a big innovation bill aimed at making the U.S. more competitive with China and other countries.

The Senate shelved a big innovation bill aimed at making the U.S. more competitive with China and other countries.

Senators slogged through days of debates and amendments, but proceedings came to a standstill late Thursday. One Republican, Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, protested the rush to finish and insisted on more changes to the sprawling package. Other measures spell out national security concerns and target money laundering schemes or cyberattacks by entities on behalf of the government of China. Taken together, the innovation act has been a priority for Schumer, the Democratic leader who has long advocated a tougher approach to China. He and Young struck up a conversation about teaming up on a bill during workouts at the Senate gym, lawmakers said.

Congress Technology Bill FILE - In this May 18, 2021, file photo, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Senate is set to approve a big innovation bill aimed at making the U.S. more competitive with China and other countries. “It’s not about beating China,” Young said in a speech Thursday. There are also “buy America” provisions for infrastructure projects in the U.S.Taken together, the innovation act is a collection of bills that span several Senate committees. He and Young struck up a conversation about teaming up on a bill during workouts at the Senate gym, lawmakers said.

What started as a pragmatic effort to boost scientific research and development has morphed into sweeping Senate bill aimed at making the U.S. more competitive with China and other countries, including $50 billion in emergency funds to shore up domestic computer chip manufacturing. The American Innovation and Competition Act is key to President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plans and was headed toward final passage as debate dragged into early Friday morning. It’s also a test of whether the split 50-50 Senate can accomplish bipartisan achievements at a time when there’s pressure on Democrats to change the rules to push past obstruction and gridlock.

Biden Science FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2021 file photo, Eric Lander speaks during an event at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del. The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday approved President Joe Biden's nomination of Eric Lander to be chief science adviser, the last unfilled Cabinet post in the Biden administration. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) (Matt Slocum)WASHINGTON — (AP) — The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday approved President Joe Biden's nomination of Eric Lander to be chief science adviser, one of the last unfilled Cabinet posts in the Biden administration. If approved, Lander would nearly complete Biden's Cabinet. Shalanda Young has been serving as acting OMB director after her confirmation as deputy director.

The Senate Commerce Committee has approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Eric Lander to be chief science adviser.

Former Sen. Bill Nelson will go before the U.S. Senate later this month during a confirmation hearing where he is expected to be confirmed as NASA’s next administrator.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to know he’s sincere about cutting a deal on infrastructure.

President Joe Biden wants Congress to know he’s sincere about cutting a deal on infrastructure.

FILE - In this Feb. 23, 2021, file photo Interior Secretary nominee Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., speaks during her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. On March 15, the Senate confirmed her as Interior Secretary. Haaland was confirmed by a 51-40 vote, the narrowest margin yet for a Cabinet nomination by President Joe Biden. Haaland, a member of the Laguna Pueblo and a 35th-generation resident of New Mexico, thanked hundreds of supporters at a virtual party hosted by Native American organizations. Jonathan Nez, president of the Navajo Nation in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, called Haaland’s confirmation “an unprecedented and monumental day for all first people of this country.

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2021, file photo, Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., listens during the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on her nomination to be Interior secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Jim Watson/Pool Photo via AP, File)WASHINGTON – A key Senate committee on Thursday approved the nomination of New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland to be interior secretary, clearing the way for a Senate vote that is likely to make her the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved Haaland's nomination, 11-9, sending it to the Senate floor. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the lone Republican to support Haaland, who won unanimous backing from committee Democrats. The committee vote follows an announcement Wednesday by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that she will support Haaland in the full Senate.

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2021 file photo, President-elect Joe Biden's nominee for Secretary of Commerce, Rhode Island Gov. The Senate has voted to confirm Raimondo as President Biden's commerce secretary. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON – The Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to confirm Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to serve as President Joe Biden’s commerce secretary and help guide the economy's recovery during and after the coronavirus pandemic. Later Tuesday, the Senate voted 95-4 to confirm Cecilia Rouse to be chair of Biden's Council of Economic Advisers.

The Commerce Committee approved the nomination of Buttigieg, a 39-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, on a 21-3 vote. His nomination now heads to the full Senate, where a vote could happen as early as this week. He would be the first openly gay person, and one of the youngest, confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. Biden has been urging the Senate, where Democrats hold a bare majority, to move quickly on his Cabinet picks given the current COVID-19 crisis. He signed an executive order mandating masks on airplanes and in public transportation to help stem the spread of the deadly virus.

In a report released Friday, Dec. 18, 2020 the Senate Commerce Committee also said the FAA continues to retaliate against whistleblowers. In a report released Friday, the Senate Commerce Committee also said the FAA continues to retaliate against whistleblowers. Both grew out of concern about the agency's approval of the Boeing Max. The Senate report, however, criticized a key part of the FAA review. It said that Boeing “inappropriately influenced" FAA testing of pilot-reaction time to a nose-down pitch of the plane.

The CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter return (virtually) to Congress today to defend their legal liability shield to lawmakers keen to weaken it. Section 230 protects tech platforms from liability for their users' posts but also allows them to moderate content they consider "objectionable." Republicans have complained that the legal shield allows tech companies to get away with removing messages they disagree with, particularly those from conservatives. Tech companies have repeatedly denied claims that their moderation practices are based in biased policies or algorithms. Ranking Member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., focused her opening remarks on concerns about disinformation on the tech platforms.

WASHINGTON – Less than a week before Election Day, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google are set to be grilled by Republican senators making unfounded allegations that the tech giants show anti-conservative bias. With the election looming, Republicans led by President Donald Trump have thrown a barrage of grievances at Big Tech’s social media platforms, which they accuse without evidence of deliberately suppressing conservative, religious and anti-abortion views. The tech platforms are gateways to news online. It proposes that Congress enact rules preventing tech platforms from taking local news content without fair payment. “For too long, social media platforms have hidden behind Section 230 protections to censor content that deviates from their beliefs,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said recently.

The Senate Commerce Committee voted on a unanimous, bipartisan basis Thursday to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify before the panel about concerns over the tech industry's key legal shield, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the committee, initially opposed the subpoena introduced by Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. But on Thursday, Cantwell said she supported the move after Republicans included language in the subpoena about privacy and "media domination." "I welcome the debate about [Section] 230," Cantwell said in her opening remarks. Republicans have repeatedly turned to Section 230 as a key area for reform in response to their concerns that social media companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google's YouTube censor conservative voices.

FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2006, file photo, former Republican Sen. Slade Gorton, center, is introduced at a fundraiser for Republican Senate candidate Mike McGavick in Bellevue, Wash. Gorton, who served in the Washington Legislature, and as state attorney general before he became a three-term U.S. senator, has died. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)SEATTLE Slade Gorton, a patrician and cerebral politician who served as a U.S. Senate Republican leader before he was ousted by the growing Seattle-area liberal electorate in 2000, has died. Gorton died Wednesday in Seattle, said J. Vander Stoep, who served a Gorton's chief of staff in the Senate. In 1980, he won a coveted U.S. Senate seat by knocking off the legendary Maggie Warren G. Magnuson, appropriations committee chairman and Senate president. But within a year, Evans decided to vacate the other Senate seat, and Gorton launched his comeback.

Former Obama NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco, a scientist at Oregon State University, said in an email that high level officials put politics and their own jobs above public safety. By the time the two tweets were posted, Alabama was no longer in the hurricane centers warning cone, although it had been in previous days. Jacobs said things went crazy in the middle of the night.Then-NOAA communications chief Julie Kay Roberts told the inspector generals office that Walsh told her there are jobs on the line. The report said there was no credible evidence found to say that jobs were threatened. The Inspector General instead selectively quotes from interviews, takes facts out of context.The White House declined comment.

The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington where Boeing builds the long-grounded 737 Max joined Wicker in criticizing FAA's failure to turn over documents. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, pressed Dickson on whether Boeing lied to the FAA about safety concerns around the Boeing plane. This week, Wicker and Cantwell introduced legislation to revamp the FAA's process for certifying new passenger planes. Boeing hopes to win FAA approval this year for changes it is making to the plane so airlines can resume using it. Dickson said, as he has many times, that FAA will approve Boeing's work when it is convinced the plane is safe.

The bill would spend about $2.8 billion per year on conservation, outdoor recreation and park maintenance. "Americas hundreds of millions of acres of public lands are the result of hundreds of years of exploration and conservation,'' said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnnell, R-Ky. Those measures are especially needed now, when communities surrounded by public lands have high unemployment rates because of shutdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Gardner said. Trump has tweeted in favor of the lands bill, saying it "will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands.'' Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., credited a new coalition of lawmakers from both parties who support conservation and public lands.

The bill, set for a Senate vote this coming week, would spend about $2.8 billion per year on conservation, outdoor recreation and park maintenance. McConnell told the two senators, who are both seeking reelection this year, that he would not consider the bill unless Trump was on board. Cantwell credited Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., for forcing attention on the conservation fund by blocking a 2018 spending bill that did not renew the program. While widely supported, the outdoors bill faces sharp opposition, mainly from Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and other Gulf Coast senators pushing to ensure it includes revenue-sharing for their states from offshore drilling. Calling Trump's record on the environment "the worst one in history,'' Cantwell said Gardner, Daines and other Republicans will be forced to defend the president as they go before voters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A nearly $500 billion spending deal reached by U.S. Senate leaders on Tuesday does not expand payroll assistance to struggling local newspapers and broadcast stations, whose advertising revenues have plummeted during the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell and Amy Klobuchar and Republicans John Kennedy and John Boozman on Sunday had called on Senate leaders to revise the rules to make thousands of local newspapers, TV and radio stations eligible for assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program. Many local outlets are ineligible because they are owned by parent companies too large to qualify. The four senators said local newspapers had lost as much as 50% of advertising revenue, while the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) says some local broadcasters have reported as much as a 90% loss in advertising revenues. Local news outlets still hold out significant hope they will added to another stimulus bill that Congress is expected to take up in May.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Officials ordered the U.S. Capitol complex closed to much of the public starting on Thursday, one day after a staffer for a U.S. senator from Washington state tested positive for the new coronavirus. Lawmakers, staff, credentialed journalists and visitors with official business would still be allowed entry. Senator Maria Cantwell said on Wednesday she would shutter her Washington office after one member of her staff tested positive for COVID-19. Senator Mitt Romney also closed his Washington office, as did Senator Bill Cassidy. Senator Ted Cruz, who is among several lawmakers who have self-quarantined after coming in contact with someone who later tested positive for the coronavirus, also closed his Washington office.

FILE PHOTO: Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) arrives as the impeachment trial of U.S. President Donald Trump continues in Washington, U.S., January 23, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua RobertsWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A staffer in U.S. Democratic Senator Maria Cantwells office has tested positive for coronavirus, her office said on Wednesday. Cantwell will close her office in Washington, D.C., for the week and her staff will work remotely. Cantwell represents the state of Washington, which has been one of the states hardest hit by the outbreak. Since Sunday, at least seven lawmakers have said they would isolate themselves or shutter their offices after contact with people who tested positive for the virus, which can sometimes be deadly.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump on Friday signed a sweeping spending bill to combat the spread of the new coronavirus, pumping billions of dollars into prevention efforts and research in hopes of quickly producing a vaccine for the deadly disease. Trump signed the bill on the same day worldwide cases surpassed 100,000Lawmakers had worked through the weekend before resolving a dispute over vaccine pricing and unveiling the $8.3 billion aid package in Congress on Wednesday. It sailed through the House and Senate by Thursday. A slew of new cases have been confirmed in the U.S. in recent days, and health officials have warned that the virus is on the verge of becoming a pandemic. The size of the bill dwarfs the $2.5 billion in funding the Trump administration had originally proposed.

After months of tinkering and negotiations, the outlines of a federal privacy law are finally starting to crystallize, but lawmakers continue to quibble over the details. "We have a lot of bills, but we have no federal law. "People are angry and scared more than ever before and they don't care whether it's a federal law or a state law. Enacting a federal privacy law has become a more urgent concern for lawmakers as California's privacy bill is set to go into effect Jan. 1. Here are some of the key issues senators sought clarity on at Wednesday's hearing:

Boeing executives admitted to lawmakers in a tense hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday that the company made mistakes in developing its troubled 737 Max plane, grounded worldwide after two crashes killed 346 people. An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crashed in March, less than five months later, killing all 157 people on board. Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., the state where the 737 Max is produced, asked Muilenburg and the commercial airplane unit's chief engineer whether its safety assumptions and assessments were wrong. In both crashes, pilots battled the system that repeatedly pushed the nose of the planes down. Hamilton said Boeing didn't "specifically" test an unintended activation of the system because of an issue with an angle-of-attack sensor.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Democrats on the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday introduced legislation to mandate numerous aviation safety recommendations in the wake of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people and led to the planes grounding in March. FILE PHOTO: A worker walks past unpainted Boeing 737 MAX aircraft seen parked in an aerial photo at Renton Municipal Airport near the Boeing Renton facility in Renton, Washington, U.S. July 1, 2019. Congress and independent panels have been looking at the performance of a key anti-stall safety system tied to the two fatal crashes known as MCAS. The bill would direct the FAA to adopt recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Transportation Departments Inspector General and ICAO. The bill would also create an FAA Center of Excellence dedicated to studying flight automation and human factors in commercial aircraft.

The Senate will vote on former Delta Air Lines executive Stephen Dicksons nomination. The Senate must first vote to end debate on the nomination before it can proceed to a final vote, expected later this week. This month, the Senate Commerce Committee voted 14 to 12 along party lines to approve the nomination. He is not the right person for the safety culture that we need at the FAA, Cantwell said Tuesday on the Senate floor. Dickson was never accused of retaliating against any whistleblower, Wicker added.