Ted Cruz

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Key Figures

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced on February 18, 2026, that the Commission had adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reform the Lifeline program — which subsidizes phone and internet service for low-income households — by codifying it as a federal public benefit available only to citizens and those meeting 1996 welfare reform eligibility requirements. The FCC also proposed using the SAVE immigration verification system to enforce a five-year waiting period and screen out immigrants currently enrolled.

The House version of the "One Big Beautiful Bill" includes a provision backed by Sen. Ted Cruz imposing a 10-year moratorium on states enforcing any AI regulation stricter than federal standards. Cruz frames it as preventing a patchwork of state laws from hampering US AI competitiveness. Civil rights groups warn the provision would eliminate state consumer and discrimination protections for a decade. On July 1, 2025, the Senate votes 99-1 to strip the AI preemption provision from the bill after Senate parliamentarians rule it violates the Byrd Rule — a procedural requirement that reconciliation provisions directly affect federal revenue or spending. The 99-1 vote signals broad bipartisan rejection of bundling sweeping AI preemption into budget legislation, though Cruz signals he will pursue the ban through standalone legislation.

Senator Ted Cruz and media commentator Tucker Carlson engaged in a public dispute over the Trump administration's Iran bombing campaign, with Carlson arguing the strikes served Israeli rather than American interests and Cruz defending the action as protecting US national security. The exchange exposed a growing rift between MAGA foreign policy non-interventionists and establishment Republican hawks that had been papered over during the first term.

The Senate confirmed Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary on February 19, 2025, by a vote of 51-45. Lutnick had served as CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and co-CEO of BGC Partners for over 30 years, accumulating substantial equity stakes in both firms before his nomination. The Commerce Department oversees NOAA, Census Bureau, and NIST, which collectively award billions in federal contracts annually to financial services and technology firms, creating direct conflict-of-interest questions about Lutnick's ability to participate in decisions affecting his former employers.

Former President Trump posted to Truth Social calling for the "termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution" to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The post came after Elon Musk released internal Twitter documents about content moderation. Trump falsely framed the "Twitter Files" as proof of massive fraud and demanded reinstatement as president. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell called the statement "unacceptable." Sen. Ted Cruz said Trump was "wrong." The House passed a resolution condemning the call. Democrats and constitutional scholars described it as the most explicit attack by a major political figure on the legal foundations of American democracy.