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Bodies with power

U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Type
Government body
Place
United States — United States (federal legislature)
Last checked
2026-09-22
Next check due
2027-03-21

Named seats

  • Ted Cruz — chair, R, TX · Checked 2026-09-22
  • Maria Cantwell — ranking, D, WA · Checked 2026-09-22

Official, up-to-date list of members Verified

Ways to reach them

  • Majority (Republican) office · Call for evidence
    202-224-1251 — Dirksen Senate Office Building 554, Washington DC 20510
    Verified · 2026-09-22

    Phone and post only.

    VERIFIED on https://www.commerce.senate.gov/contact.

  • Minority (Democratic) office · Call for evidence
    202-224-0411 — Hart Senate Office Building 428, Washington DC 20510
    Verified · 2026-09-22

    Phone and post only.

    VERIFIED on the same page.

  • Committee email or public submission form · Email address
    none published
    Verification expired · 2026-09-22

    This route is retained as reference only. Its verification is missing, more than 180 days old, or the contact window is not currently open; do not rely on it until it is re-checked.

    n/a

    VERIFIED ABSENCE — the committee's own contact page publishes no email address and no web form, and directs visitors to an FAQ first.

  • Statements for the record · Call for evidence
    submitted through the hearing's designated staff contact, announced per hearing
    Unverified

    US committees accept 'statements for the record' around a hearing, typically within two weeks after, but the process is not published centrally.

    UNVERIFIED — unlike the UK, the US Senate has no standing public written-evidence portal.

  • Homepage · Homepage
    Unchecked
  • Public submission route · Written submission
    Verified · 2026-09-22

What it does

Primary Senate committee of jurisdiction for AI policy, NIST/CAISI authorisation and oversight, the FTC, NTIA and commercial data privacy. Holds hearings, authorises and oversees NIST, and originates most federal AI legislation. It can subpoena, compel testimony and legislate, but does not adjudicate individual complaints.

Its AI responsibilities

The single most important AI door in the Senate. Owns the FTC (consumer protection, unfair/deceptive AI practices), NIST and the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), NTIA, NSF, NOAA, the FCC, interstate commerce generally, and commercial data privacy. Send here: general-purpose/frontier AI regulation, AI safety testing and evaluation mandates, federal preemption of state AI laws, AI transparency and disclosure rules, chatbots and minors, deepfakes/NCII, AI standards, commercial data privacy, autonomous vehicles, and AI in telecom. NOT here: copyright, liability/private rights of action, or DOJ (Judiciary); federal agency internal AI use (HSGAC); military AI (Armed Services); AI chip export controls (Banking).

Its powers

compel

Honest assessment

US committees are NOT like UK select committees: there is no open written-evidence call and no published submission portal. Unsolicited mail to the committee is not read by policy staff. What actually works is (1) being a constituent of a member and going through that member's state office, (2) reaching the named professional staff member handling AI on the majority or minority side — identifiable from hearing transcripts, LegiStorm and staff directories — and (3) submitting a statement for the record when a hearing is noticed, which is published in the hearing record. A phone call to the committee switchboard to ask who handles AI is the cheapest first move and often works.

Current business

VERIFIED: 5 Aug 2026 markup advanced S.1748 Kids Online Safety Act (Blackburn/Blumenthal), S.4199 Youth AI Privacy Act (Markey), S.4407 CHATBOT Act (Cruz/Schatz/Curtis), S.5171 Children's Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026 (Duckworth/Murkowski), S.737 SCREEN Act. S.2750 SANDBOX Act (Cruz, Sept 2025) — AI regulatory sandbox, referred here; part of Cruz's announced AI Policy Framework. S.3952 Future of Artificial Intelligence Innovation Act of 2026 (Young) pending. S.2938 Artificial Intelligence Risk Evaluation Act of 2025 (Hawley/Blumenthal) referred here 2025. S.146 TAKE IT DOWN Act (Cruz) enacted 2025. Hearing 'Intelligent Networks: Powering Artificial Intelligence and Transforming Communications' (30 Jul 2026); 'Measuring What Matters: Science, Standards, and Strategic Competition' (21 Jul 2026). 16 Sep 2026: committee approved Cruz-Wyden anti-'jawboning' bill 18-10, which would create a public database of government communications with AI providers; Cantwell amendment to strip the AI references failed 15-13. As of Sept 2026 a Cruz/Klobuchar/Thune frontier-AI 'catastrophic risk' bill is still unreleased after an August markup was pulled, with Cruz and Cantwell split over self-testing vs. mandatory federal vetting.

Public route

VERIFIED contact page https://www.commerce.senate.gov/contact — Majority (R) staff: Dirksen 554, 202-224-1251. Minority (D) staff: Hart 428, 202-224-0411. Main committee: 254 Russell, Washington DC 20510. No public web form and no published staff email directory. Non-constituents are not barred, but the committee publishes no intake process for them; a letter or call to the majority or minority staff line is the only published route.

Notes

Jurisdiction over CAISI's authorisation makes this the committee that matters most for the US AI-safety institutional question.

Research note

Chair/ranking verified 2026-09-22 against senate.gov's official committee membership roster (committee_memberships_SSCM.htm). The FLI guide calls this committee 'Commerce, Science, and Technology' — the correct name is Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Sources

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