Technology & Innovation

The 18th Congressional District is home to Silicon Valley, Stanford University, and a robust biotechnology industry. Rep. Eshoo represents many of the world’s foremost information and communications technology innovators who have led the world in developing breakthrough discoveries that continue to shape our society and lead our economy.

On the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Eshoo serves on the Communications and Technology Subcommittee and the Health Subcommittee, which have jurisdiction on all things technology and health. She is a leader on issues affecting cutting-edge technologies, telecommunications, biotech, and the internet, and is committed to ensuring the U.S. continues leading the world in these critical fields in the 21st century.

Protecting Users’ Rights Online

Too often, private information online is stolen, abused, used for profit, or grossly mishandled. To protect Americans’ right to privacy, Reps. Eshoo and Lofgren introduced the Online Privacy Act, sweeping legislation that has been rated the top privacy bill in Congress by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a leading privacy advocacy group, and supported by civil society groups and privacy experts.

Rep. Eshoo has also introduced legislation to limit the commercial use of personal data for targeted advertising and has advocated against the government’s collection of Americans’ personal data. She is working to combat the plague of misinformation and disinformation that festers online, which too often manifests in real-world harms and erode democracy. Reps. Eshoo and Malinowski introduced the Protecting Americans from Dangerous Algorithms Act, legislation to hold large social media platforms accountable for their algorithmic amplification of harmful, radicalizing content that leads to offline violence.

Telecommunications

Broadband

Rep. Eshoo has long fought for broadband expansion and was proud to vote for the recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which includes $65 billion in funding for broadband infrastructure to expand internet access and close the digital divide. She has long advocated for the use of future-proof technology in government projects, ‘dig once’ requirements that require broadband conduit to be installed during road construction, and empowering local communities to build their own broadband networks, often at higher speeds and lower costs.

Consumer Protection

Rep. Eshoo is fighting to protect consumers against robocalls and other nuisances. Rep. Eshoo authored the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act in 2010 to put an end to the booming ads on TV. She recently updated the legislation to include streaming services which were not available when the original CALM Act was passed. Under the new law, the Federal Communications Commission will also have more authority to investigate and enforce violations of the law by traditional TV operators.

Net Neutrality

An open architecture is essential to preserving the free choice, competition, and innovation that have driven the internet and made it so successful. Rep. Eshoo has been a leader in ensuring a free and open internet and has both led legislation and filed amicus briefs in court on such issues.

Protecting Infrastructure

Rep. Eshoo has introduced legislation to protect critical telecommunications infrastructure including building resilient systems to withstand natural disasters such as California wildfires, guarding against foreign use of airwaves, and ensuring that telecommunications equipment is secure and free from surveillance technology used by our adversaries. Rep. Eshoo’s bipartisan, bicameral Secure Equipment Act was signed into law on November 12, 2021, preventing equipment manufactured by Chinese state-backed firms such as Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua from being further utilized and marketed in the United States.

Leading-edge Technology

Competition and innovation are the lifeblood of America’s economy. Rep. Eshoo has a track record of ensuring that people with innovative ideas are equipped with the tools needed to ensure the U.S. leads in technology on the global stage.

Artificial Intelligence

It is critical for the U.S. to lead the rest of the world in the development of democratically aligned AI. AI has the power to transform society in ways yet unimagined, but it also contains threats to the safety and freedoms of our society.

After working with Stanford and the National Security Commission on AI, Rep. Eshoo and Senator Portman introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation that President Biden signed into law that established a task force of leading AI experts from government, academia, and industry to develop a roadmap for a National AI Research Resource that would better enable the public sector to perform research in AI.