Commerce Committee chair criticizes Democrats' attendance, previews bipartisan markup

The chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation opened a committee markup Tuesday, criticized Senate Democrats for not attending and previewed a bipartisan package of bills on product safety, social media and national-security matters.

The chair said Democrats had left the Department of Homeland Security "defunded and shut down" for more than three weeks and accused them of prioritizing immigration issues over other duties. He also said "we've had 4 terrorist attacks in the last 2 weeks" and that about "450 TSA agents" had quit, producing long airport lines, statements he offered as part of the case for moving the bills quickly.

Why it matters: The chair framed the markup as bipartisan and aimed to move measures he said already enjoyed broad committee support. He also used the opening statement to fault absent Democratic members and to explain why the committee had not yet advanced certain last-minute items introduced by Democrats.

The chair summarized the bills scheduled for consideration. He described the Alex Gates Safety Act, introduced by Senators Curtis and Klobuchar, which would direct the Consumer Product Safety Commission to address automatic sliding gates; he said the bill honors Alex Kwanbeck, who died in 2019 at age 7. He also described the No Fentanyl on Social Media Act (sponsored with Senators Klobuchar and Blunt Rochester), saying it would require the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services to report on minors' access to fentanyl via social platforms in response to youth overdose deaths.

On mental-health concerns tied to social media, the chair described the Stop the Scroll Act (introduced with Senator Fetterman), saying it would require a warning label about mental-health harms while being scoped to avoid First Amendment challenges. He previewed security bills including the Secure Space Act (to bar certain satellite systems from U.S. market access), the Satellite Cybersecurity Act (to create a Department of Commerce clearinghouse for cybersecurity resources) and the Safeguards Act (which would alter the passenger security fee to direct more funding to aviation security capital and checkpoint technology).

The chair also outlined two science-related reauthorizations: a reauthorization of regional ocean partnerships, described as a state-led, nonregulatory research and management model, and the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act to support federal quantum research centers and test beds. He said U.S. leadership in quantum is critical because the technology "could 1 day break the encryption that protects sensitive data."

The chair repeatedly emphasized that the agenda items were bipartisan and said 24 of the committee's 28 members had cosponsored legislation on the markup. He alleged the dispute over attendance stemmed from a last-minute request by Senator Duckworth's staff to add her bill to the agenda and said that, with one day's notice, the committee had not had time to review it. "With 1 day's notice, we did not have time to review the bill or to assess it," he said, and he claimed Senator Duckworth planned to offer many amendments to delay consideration.

No formal votes or outcomes were recorded in the transcript. The chair warned that absent Democrats were hindering the committee's ability to "pass bipartisan legislation" and stated that roughly half the committee was present and prepared to proceed. The markup's further schedule or any decision on whether to reschedule contested items was not specified in the transcript.