Capitol Hill tech policy panels, recorded in the room
Tech Policy From The Hill is the audio of briefings the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy holds at the U.S. Capitol, each one a moderated panel, sometimes with questions from the room. The sessions range from satellite broadband and the power demands of AI to kids' age verification laws and decades-old FCC video rules.
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Tech Policy From The Hill is the podcast of the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy, made from briefings recorded at the U.S. Capitol. The episodes keep a fixed shape. A moderator welcomes the room and notes that the event runs in conjunction with the Congressional Internet Caucus. The moderator then names the caucus co-chairs: Congressman Michael McCaul and Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the House, and Senator John Thune in the Senate. Then the panel takes over, and a session can close with questions from the audience and a round of thanks. Tim Lorden, the Academy's executive director, opens more than one of these sessions, and at least one was introduced by Ted Dubuque, a legislative assistant for McCaul. The subject matter sits where federal policy meets the internet, energy and media. One briefing takes up satellite broadband. A speaker there argues that low-earth-orbit services now offer a genuine alternative to cable and fiber almost everywhere, and that anyone still counting only wires as broadband is simply wrong. The same speaker adds that very dense areas, heavy tree cover and cloud cover are still limits. The AI energy panel turns to hardware bottlenecks, with a panelist citing waits of five to six years for a gas turbine and equipment costs that have doubled, tripled and quadrupled. The panel is asked whether a data center with its own batteries or backup generators could give power back to the grid. On kids' online safety, a panelist separates the FSC versus Paxton decision, which dealt with content illegal for minors, from laws that reach speech legal for everyone. That conversation also mentions the UK Online Safety Act. It ends with a prediction that some of these laws will be struck down and some upheld, and with a call for federal action on age verification and data privacy. The moderator admits he never got to his question about AI companions. At a briefing on FCC video rules, a panelist argues that rate regulations created in 1993 never worked and are on their way out, with pole attachments and retransmission as likely exceptions. For the widest view, 'Audio: Tech Policy in 2026: A 2nd Session Preview' brings together Luke Hogg of the Foundation for American Innovation, Amy Boss of NetChoice, Asad Ramzanali of the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator and Nathan Leamer of Build American AI. Amy Boss also sat on the preview panel for the previous session. On the 2026 panel, one speaker treats data centers as mostly a state and local fight and writes off a moratorium bill from senators as going nowhere. The tone is practical and direct, and the moderators keep it light. A listener gets a Hill policy panel's argument as it happened in the room, not a summary written afterward.
Made for: Suits a listener who follows technology legislation and wants to hear panelists from policy groups argue specifics, from satellite broadband competition to age verification law, instead of reading a summary.
What sets it apart: It carries the audio of briefings held at the U.S. Capitol with the Congressional Internet Caucus, not a studio interview. Each episode is a moderated panel that names the caucus co-chairs at the start, and some include questions from the audience.
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A Capitol briefing makes your 'just regulate it' instinct face the cable rulebook.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Capitol conversation on how low-Earth-orbit broadband is reshaping competition and digital divide policy.
Space-based internet comes through as a long-running broadband idea whose moment has sharpened. From the U.S. Capitol, the episode moves from a 1990s satellite proposal tied to the Telecom Act of 1996 to today's low-Earth-orbit services, using that history to ask what happens…
A Capitol panel follows AI and data-center politics from a federal moratorium proposal to local fights over power and community trust.
A Capitol tech-policy preview finds a sharper angle on a familiar Washington problem: which fights still belong in Congress, and which have already moved to states, local boards, and community rooms?
A Capitol panel weighs how AI data centers might become more grid-responsive as energy limits shape infrastructure planning.
Energy is now one of the hard limits on AI growth, and this Capitol luncheon keeps the focus on what that means for infrastructure. The panel links rising data-center demand to expensive, slow-to-source equipment, then looks at energy systems built alongside those facilities to…
A Capitol panel grounds AI growth in turbines, transformers, grid flexibility, and one partly unresolved renewable-build policy question.
AI's appetite for power lands here as a practical infrastructure story, not a vague future worry. In a discussion recorded at the U.S. Capitol, panelists tie data-center growth to gas turbines, transformers, supply-chain costs, and the day-to-day work of keeping the grid stable.
A Capitol policy panel sorts where age verification meets a legal threshold and where it risks burdening protected speech.
Age verification moves from court doctrine to platform policy in this U.S. Capitol luncheon from the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy. Tim Lorden sets up a discussion that separates FSC v.
A Capitol briefing tests old FCC video rules against contracts that still limit some programmers.
The briefing sets old FCC video rules against a market now shaped by streaming, and it works best when that contrast stays concrete. A former commission official makes the case that rate rules and many leftover cable-video obligations no longer fit the competitive landscape.
Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson debate Canadian politics, from Alberta separatism to Ottawa's bureaucracy.
Robert Evans, Katie Stoll, and Cody Johnston build fake conspiracies and mock right-wing media.
Jonah Goldberg's literate, dry-witted arguments about politics and ideas.
At a Congressional Internet Caucus Academy briefing at the U.S.
Tech Policy From The Hill, the Congressional Internet Caucus Academies podcast, previews the second session of the 119th Congress from the U.S.
At Tech Policy From The Hill's “Audio: The Future of AI: Securing Energy for Innovation,” Rebecca Kern moderated Levi Patterson of NVIDIA, Leslie Abrahams of CSIS, and David Terry of the National Association of State Energy Officials at a Congressional Internet Caucus Academy luncheon at the U.S.
Tech Policy From The Hill brings together Rebecca Kern, Levi Patterson of NVIDIA, Leslie Abrahams of CSIS, and David Terry of the National Association of State Energy Officials to discuss AI data centers, electricity bills, and grid planning at the United States Capitol.
The Congressional Internet Caucus Academy podcast records from the U.S.
Tim Lorden opens a Congressional Internet Caucus Academy briefing from the U.S.
At the Congressional Internet Caucus Academy briefing at the U.S.
Moderated by The Hill's Miranda Nazaro, a four-person panel compared COSA, COSMA and COPPA 2.0, with COSA having passed the Senate 91 to 3 in December 2024 but not yet reintroduced in the 119th Congress.
The Congressional Internet Caucus Academy panel On the Horizon: the Future of Tech Policy in the 119th Congress brought together Abigail Ashcraft, Kelly Wicker, Sarah Collins, Evan Schwarztrauber, and Amy Boss for a Hill briefing tied to Michael McCaul and John Thune.
At a Congressional Internet Caucus Academy briefing titled "Elections in the Age of AI, Analyzing 2024 and Shaping Future Campaigns," Oma Sadiq moderated Tim Harper, Jennifer Huddleston, and Kara Frederick.
Tim Lorden introduces a briefing on protecting consumer rights to share reviews online, hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee.
An overview of spectrum management using a zoning analogy, explaining how unlicensed use like WiFi fits within the framework.
A panel discussion on how the Internet and technology are innovating the future of money, focusing on Bitcoin and digital currencies.