As Commerce Chairman, Ted Cruz Plans to Make Sure Big Tech’s Change of Heart Is for Real
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After years spent publicly haranguing Big Tech companies that disadvantage conservative speech, Senator Ted Cruz finds himself in a curious position on the eve of the second Trump administration: Just as he prepares to take over the powerful Commerce Committee, where he'd be empowered to channel those attacks into legislative action, the companies seem to be coming around to his way of thinking.
Sitting beneath a towering mural of Ronald Reagan's famous "tear down this wall" speech, Cruz invoked The Gipper to describe his attitude toward Meta's shift in a free speech direction.
"Trust but verify," Cruz told National Review in a wide-ranging interview inside his U.S. Senate office last week, where Texas paraphernalia and open cans of Diet Dr. Pepper abound. He believes Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is moving in the right direction by ridding Facebook of so-called fact-checkers, scrapping diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and adopting a free-speech policy that mirrors the strategy pioneered by Trump confidant Elon Musk at X.
But he hasn't forgotten who he's dealing with.
"Mark Zuckerberg has in the past eagerly and aggressively participated in censorship."
"Steps taken to expand free speech, to dismantle censorship, are positive and good," says the senator, adding that he discussed the topic at length on a recent episode of his podcast, The Verdict with Ted Cruz.
But the "proof," he insists, "is going to be in their conduct."
While X — and now Meta — may finally be leaving politically biased content moderation practices in the rearview, artificial intelligence will allow social media companies to put their fingers on the scale of societal conversation going forward.
Cruz remains skeptical of Big Tech, but as far as AI is concerned, he doesn't believe more government is the answer.
He's adamant that artificial intelligence was a "sleeper issue" in the 2024 election, given its potential to reshape the U.S. economy dramatically.
"I believe we should have a light-touch regulatory approach to AI," says Cruz. "Chuck Schumer and the Democrats want a heavy handed, prior approval model for government, which I believe would be disastrous."
He's optimistic that Trump will reverse outgoing President Joe Biden's ultra-regulatory approach to AI, which strays far from what he calls former Democratic president Bill Clinton's "hands-off approach to regulating the early internet."
Cautioning against over-regulation, Cruz notes the increasing discrepancy between American economic performance and the European Union's — in large part due to America's permissive approach to the tech industry and the shale revolution.
The high-profile gig as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation adds a new wrinkle to the ambitious politico's already stacked resume. A Princeton University and Harvard Law School Graduate, the Lone Star State Republican's long and storied Senate career is preceded by a list of other impressive positions in American government, including a clerkship with the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist, domestic policy adviser for George W. Bush, and solicitor general of Texas. He is now gaming out how to lead one of the most powerful committees on Capitol Hill days before President-elect Donald Trump — his 2016 presidential primary competitor — is sworn in for a second term.
As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Cruz's portfolio will span roughly 40 percent of the entire American economy and have jurisdiction over a range of important industries, from aviation and space travel to technology and college sports. Cruz takes the Commerce Committee gavel after an expensive 2024 reelection campaign, during which he handily defeated well-funded former Democratic representative Colin Allred.
His legislative to-do list is long. Asked by National Review how he is approaching his new chairmanship, the pondering Senator gave a lengthy explanation of his plans to slash regulation, lower the cost of energy, fight big tech, and lead the world in space exploration and 5G and 6G. His top priority remains job creation.
As ranking member of the Commerce Committee, Cruz engaged in a bipartisan way on increasing social media guardrails for children, cracking down on deepfake porn, and other crucial issues with less exposure to partisan crossfire. One issue where Cruz hopes to work with Democrats this time around is name, image, and likeness guidelines for college football, a less politically charged topic but an enormous one for football-loving Texans.
"Whether we are able to pass legislation on college sports will depend on whether Democrats are willing to come together and find common ground," Cruz said.
"What I can tell you is that I will use the chairmanship to push forward and try to achieve that bipartisan agreement. That means we'll have hearings, we'll have markups, we'll move legislation. I think it is incredibly important."
Cruz's anti-regulatory approach to the Commerce Committee could conflict with the new administration’s approach to a range of industries, including transportation.
Cruz opposes the Railway Safety Act, a bill co-sponsored by former senators JD Vance (R., Ohio) and Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) in the wake of the Norfolk Southern Train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. During a May 2023 Senate markup, Cruz expressed concern that, as written, the legislation was "needlessly prescriptive in certain places" and would empower the Biden administration "to further and aggressively restrict the movement of American energy products." Given Vance co-authored the bill, and Trump endorsed it, it's possible the Senate could consider the legislation at some point over the next four years.
Cruz also opposes renewing the Affordable Connectivity Program, a Biden-era broadband internet program supported by Vance that fiscal conservative critics dismiss as fraud-prone "web welfare."
The Texas Republican tells National Review he has "not discussed" either the Railway Safety Act or the Affordable Connectivity Program with Trump or Vance, though he maintains that broadband connectivity "matters enormously" and he's eager to see "greater efficiency" on the legislative front during the next administration.
"Congress shoveled money in broadband connectivity with very little results," Cruz says. "As ranking member, I put out a detailed report on much of the waste, fraud, abuse in these programs, an awful lot that was done that had the effect of just driving up prices rather than expanding availability."
Cruz, who rode the Tea Party wave to the Senate more than a dozen years ago, is no stranger to Washington, D.C. Beyond chairing Commerce, Cruz will continue to occupy coveted slots on the powerful Senate Committees on the Judiciary, Foreign Relations, and Rules.
As GOP congressional leaders continue to fight over how to prioritize Trump's legislative agenda at the start of the new Congress, the Texas Republican remains convinced that Republicans must prioritize a package focused on defense, border security, and energy and punt a more complex fight on taxes until later in the year. But House Republican leaders – and Trump – favor a single package that would tie those three agenda items to a tax-related bill that would renew the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Tying an immigration-focused package to tax-related legislation would be a "very serious mistake" that "maximizes the chances of failure," Cruz insists. He prefers a two-track strategy that would deliver an early win for Congress on border security while punting the more time-intensive and complex tax fight to later in the year.
And as for the Senate Commerce Committee, expect a busy calendar year. "The Committee will have energy and will be active," he says. "We will have hearings. We will mark up legislation. We will move and pass bipartisan pro-jobs, pro-growth legislation."
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