U.S. Congress
Here's a look at documents from all members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate
Congress
Featured Stories
Committee Advances Senator Hassan's Bill to Increase Health Care Price Transparency
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, issued the following news release:
* * *
Committee Advances Senator Hassan's Bill to Increase Health Care Price Transparency
*
WASHINGTON - The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced bipartisan legislation that U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan helped introduce to help patients better understand the cost of their health care before they receive it.
The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would require hospitals, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, and ambulatory care centers to publicly post the actual cash ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, issued the following news release: * * * Committee Advances Senator Hassan's Bill to Increase Health Care Price Transparency * WASHINGTON - The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced bipartisan legislation that U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan helped introduce to help patients better understand the cost of their health care before they receive it. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would require hospitals, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, and ambulatory care centers to publicly post the actual cashprices they charge for all health care services. The legislation would also strengthen transparency requirements for health plans offered through the federal marketplace by requiring clearer information about coverage and patient cost-sharing responsibilities.
"No one should have to guess what a health care service will cost before getting the care that they need," said Senator Hassan. "Too often, patients are left navigating a confusing system without clear information about what they'll owe until after they've received care. This bipartisan legislation will help patients make more informed decisions by requiring greater transparency about health care prices and out-of-pocket costs, which will also help drive down costs as this transparency will allow patients to more easily compare prices at different health care providers for the same service."
Current federal hospital transparency regulations require hospitals to post payer-negotiated minimum and maximum prices. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would go further by requiring providers to disclose their actual cash prices and requiring hospitals and insurers to give patients specific cost-sharing estimates in advance, giving patients clearer and more meaningful pricing information. The legislation builds on the No Surprises Act by clearly defining what information must be included in these estimates-including facility fees, a provision added at Senator Hassan's request-to help patients avoid unexpected costs.
The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act builds on Senator Hassan's ongoing bipartisan work to lower costs and make health care more affordable. Earlier this year, two of Senator Hassan's bipartisan measures to lower prescription drug costs passed into law. The Increasing Transparency in Generic Drug Applications Act will speed the approval of generic drugs by ending the lengthy guessing game that manufacturers currently go through with the FDA, enabling generic drugs to get to market sooner, lowering prices for consumers, and saving taxpayer dollars. The Patients Before Middlemen (PBM) Act helps stop pharmacy benefit managers from driving up prescription drug pricing for seniors. Senator Hassan's No Surprises Act was signed into law in 2020 to protect patients from receiving unexpected medical bills.
***
Original text here: https://www.hassan.senate.gov/news/press-releases/committee-advances-senator-hassans-bill-to-increase-health-care-price-transparency
* * *
Committee Advances Senator Hassan's Bill to Increase Health Care Price Transparency
*
WASHINGTON - The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced bipartisan legislation that U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan helped introduce to help patients better understand the cost of their health care before they receive it.
The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would require hospitals, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, and ambulatory care centers to publicly post the actual cash ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-New Hampshire, issued the following news release: * * * Committee Advances Senator Hassan's Bill to Increase Health Care Price Transparency * WASHINGTON - The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee advanced bipartisan legislation that U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan helped introduce to help patients better understand the cost of their health care before they receive it. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would require hospitals, clinical laboratories, imaging centers, and ambulatory care centers to publicly post the actual cashprices they charge for all health care services. The legislation would also strengthen transparency requirements for health plans offered through the federal marketplace by requiring clearer information about coverage and patient cost-sharing responsibilities.
"No one should have to guess what a health care service will cost before getting the care that they need," said Senator Hassan. "Too often, patients are left navigating a confusing system without clear information about what they'll owe until after they've received care. This bipartisan legislation will help patients make more informed decisions by requiring greater transparency about health care prices and out-of-pocket costs, which will also help drive down costs as this transparency will allow patients to more easily compare prices at different health care providers for the same service."
Current federal hospital transparency regulations require hospitals to post payer-negotiated minimum and maximum prices. The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act would go further by requiring providers to disclose their actual cash prices and requiring hospitals and insurers to give patients specific cost-sharing estimates in advance, giving patients clearer and more meaningful pricing information. The legislation builds on the No Surprises Act by clearly defining what information must be included in these estimates-including facility fees, a provision added at Senator Hassan's request-to help patients avoid unexpected costs.
The Patients Deserve Price Tags Act builds on Senator Hassan's ongoing bipartisan work to lower costs and make health care more affordable. Earlier this year, two of Senator Hassan's bipartisan measures to lower prescription drug costs passed into law. The Increasing Transparency in Generic Drug Applications Act will speed the approval of generic drugs by ending the lengthy guessing game that manufacturers currently go through with the FDA, enabling generic drugs to get to market sooner, lowering prices for consumers, and saving taxpayer dollars. The Patients Before Middlemen (PBM) Act helps stop pharmacy benefit managers from driving up prescription drug pricing for seniors. Senator Hassan's No Surprises Act was signed into law in 2020 to protect patients from receiving unexpected medical bills.
***
Original text here: https://www.hassan.senate.gov/news/press-releases/committee-advances-senator-hassans-bill-to-increase-health-care-price-transparency
Cantwell, Colleagues Push to Lower IVF Costs for Families & Establish a Nationwide Right to IVF
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, issued the following news release:
* * *
Cantwell, Colleagues Push to Lower IVF Costs for Families & Establish a Nationwide Right to IVF
*
07.27.26
#
#Proposal coincides with World IVF Day on July 25; Amid attacks on reproductive healthcare, legislation would require IVF coverage by health insurance & block states from banning fertility treatments
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ahead of World IVF Day on July 25, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, issued the following news release: * * * Cantwell, Colleagues Push to Lower IVF Costs for Families & Establish a Nationwide Right to IVF * 07.27.26 # #Proposal coincides with World IVF Day on July 25; Amid attacks on reproductive healthcare, legislation would require IVF coverage by health insurance & block states from banning fertility treatments WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ahead of World IVF Day on July 25, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior memberof the Senate Finance Committee, joined Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) in reintroducing the Right to IVF Act, a sweeping legislative package that would make it easier to access in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) for the millions of hopeful parents who depend on it to build their family.
Coming nearly two years after President Donald Trump promised free IVF for all Americans on the campaign trail, this pro-family legislation would establish a nationwide right to access IVF, lower the costs of IVF treatment, expand IVF coverage for military families, and require all employer-sponsored insurance programs to cover IVF.
In 2024, for the first time more than 100,000 babies were born nationwide in a single year thanks to IVF. In Washington, over 2,300 babies born thanks to IVF. Last Congress, Sen. Cantwell cosponsored the Right to IVF Act and called for its passage. Nearly every Republican senator opposed the bill, which marked the fourth time Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would protect access to IVF nationwide.
Building on the lawmakers' previous efforts to protect and strengthen access to IVF, this pro-family, pro-freedom legislative package includes:
* The Protect IVF Act, led by Sen. Duckworth, which would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other ART services, a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment in accordance with medical standards as well as a right for insurance carriers to cover IVF without prohibition, limitation, interference or impediment. By establishing a statutory right, this would pre-empt any state effort to limit such access and ensuring no hopeful parent-or their doctors-are punished for trying to start or grow a family.
* The Veteran Families Health Services Act, led by Sen. Murray, which would expand the fertility treatments and family-building services that are covered under servicemembers' and veterans' health care to include-among other things-the option for individuals to cryopreserve their gametes (freeze their eggs or sperm) ahead of deployment to a combat zone and IVF for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance.
* The Access to Infertility Treatment and Care Act, led by Sen. Booker, which would increase affordability of fertility care-including IVF-by requiring employer-sponsored insurance plans and public insurance plans to cover fertility treatments. Additionally, it would standardize a baseline of high-quality fertility treatment coverage under private health insurance plans, while protecting Americans against excessive out-of-pocket costs.
* The Family Building FEHB Fairness Act, led by Sen. Duckworth, which would require Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program-the largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan in the world-carriers to cover IVF and ART to help more hardworking Americans start and grow their families.
Full text of the legislation can be found HERE.
In addition to Sens. Cantwell, Duckworth, Murray, Booker, and Schumer, the legislation is cosponsored by the entire U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus.
Companion legislation is being introduced in the House by U.S. Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MA-03), James Walkinshaw (D-VA-11), Rick Larsen (D-WA-02), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), and Laura Gillen (D-NY-04).
The Right to IVF Act is supported by over 40 organizations representing patients, doctors, and healthcare providers, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), the Human Rights Campaign, MomsRising, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).
Sen. Cantwell has repeatedly championed reproductive freedom, including expanding access to IVF.
In June 2024, Sen. Cantwell called on her colleagues to pass the Right to IVF Act. After Senate Republicans blocked the bill in September 2024, Sen. Cantwell sharply criticized their votes, saying in a floor speech, "We are making women travel all over just to get care, and now we're telling Americans we don't even know if we believe in IVF. This nonsense has to stop."
***
Original text here: https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cantwell-colleagues-push-to-lower-ivf-costs-for-families-and-establish-a-nationwide-right-to-ivf
* * *
Cantwell, Colleagues Push to Lower IVF Costs for Families & Establish a Nationwide Right to IVF
*
07.27.26
#
#Proposal coincides with World IVF Day on July 25; Amid attacks on reproductive healthcare, legislation would require IVF coverage by health insurance & block states from banning fertility treatments
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ahead of World IVF Day on July 25, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, issued the following news release: * * * Cantwell, Colleagues Push to Lower IVF Costs for Families & Establish a Nationwide Right to IVF * 07.27.26 # #Proposal coincides with World IVF Day on July 25; Amid attacks on reproductive healthcare, legislation would require IVF coverage by health insurance & block states from banning fertility treatments WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ahead of World IVF Day on July 25, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior memberof the Senate Finance Committee, joined Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Patty Murray (D-WA), and Cory Booker (D-NJ) in reintroducing the Right to IVF Act, a sweeping legislative package that would make it easier to access in-vitro fertilization (IVF) and other assisted reproductive technology (ART) for the millions of hopeful parents who depend on it to build their family.
Coming nearly two years after President Donald Trump promised free IVF for all Americans on the campaign trail, this pro-family legislation would establish a nationwide right to access IVF, lower the costs of IVF treatment, expand IVF coverage for military families, and require all employer-sponsored insurance programs to cover IVF.
In 2024, for the first time more than 100,000 babies were born nationwide in a single year thanks to IVF. In Washington, over 2,300 babies born thanks to IVF. Last Congress, Sen. Cantwell cosponsored the Right to IVF Act and called for its passage. Nearly every Republican senator opposed the bill, which marked the fourth time Senate Republicans blocked legislation that would protect access to IVF nationwide.
Building on the lawmakers' previous efforts to protect and strengthen access to IVF, this pro-family, pro-freedom legislative package includes:
* The Protect IVF Act, led by Sen. Duckworth, which would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other ART services, a right for doctors to provide IVF treatment in accordance with medical standards as well as a right for insurance carriers to cover IVF without prohibition, limitation, interference or impediment. By establishing a statutory right, this would pre-empt any state effort to limit such access and ensuring no hopeful parent-or their doctors-are punished for trying to start or grow a family.
* The Veteran Families Health Services Act, led by Sen. Murray, which would expand the fertility treatments and family-building services that are covered under servicemembers' and veterans' health care to include-among other things-the option for individuals to cryopreserve their gametes (freeze their eggs or sperm) ahead of deployment to a combat zone and IVF for servicemembers and veterans who are unable to conceive without assistance.
* The Access to Infertility Treatment and Care Act, led by Sen. Booker, which would increase affordability of fertility care-including IVF-by requiring employer-sponsored insurance plans and public insurance plans to cover fertility treatments. Additionally, it would standardize a baseline of high-quality fertility treatment coverage under private health insurance plans, while protecting Americans against excessive out-of-pocket costs.
* The Family Building FEHB Fairness Act, led by Sen. Duckworth, which would require Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program-the largest employer-sponsored health insurance plan in the world-carriers to cover IVF and ART to help more hardworking Americans start and grow their families.
Full text of the legislation can be found HERE.
In addition to Sens. Cantwell, Duckworth, Murray, Booker, and Schumer, the legislation is cosponsored by the entire U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus.
Companion legislation is being introduced in the House by U.S. Representatives Lori Trahan (D-MA-03), James Walkinshaw (D-VA-11), Rick Larsen (D-WA-02), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), and Laura Gillen (D-NY-04).
The Right to IVF Act is supported by over 40 organizations representing patients, doctors, and healthcare providers, including the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), the Human Rights Campaign, MomsRising, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM).
Sen. Cantwell has repeatedly championed reproductive freedom, including expanding access to IVF.
In June 2024, Sen. Cantwell called on her colleagues to pass the Right to IVF Act. After Senate Republicans blocked the bill in September 2024, Sen. Cantwell sharply criticized their votes, saying in a floor speech, "We are making women travel all over just to get care, and now we're telling Americans we don't even know if we believe in IVF. This nonsense has to stop."
***
Original text here: https://www.cantwell.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cantwell-colleagues-push-to-lower-ivf-costs-for-families-and-establish-a-nationwide-right-to-ivf
Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics & Law Enforcement Affairs Weiland Testifies Before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere released the following testimony by F. Cartwright Weiland, assistant secretary of State for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, for from a July 15, 2026, hearing entitled "A New Beginning for Colombia":
* * *
Thank you Chairwoman Salazar, Ranking Member Castro, Members of the Subcommittee.
Eleven months ago, Colombian narcoterrorists attacked a U.S.-titled INL helicopter during a coca eradication operation in Antioquia. Thirteen police officers lost their lives from a mortar that was planted ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere released the following testimony by F. Cartwright Weiland, assistant secretary of State for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, for from a July 15, 2026, hearing entitled "A New Beginning for Colombia": * * * Thank you Chairwoman Salazar, Ranking Member Castro, Members of the Subcommittee. Eleven months ago, Colombian narcoterrorists attacked a U.S.-titled INL helicopter during a coca eradication operation in Antioquia. Thirteen police officers lost their lives from a mortar that was plantedin the ground and detonated when the helicopter landed.
This was a tragedy for the families that lost loved ones, and for Colombia. But it hit home for me because earlier that summer, I had flown into the same area, on another INL bird, to observe eradication.
This proximity of events is one of many examples showing how deeply entwined U.S. interests are in Colombia's web of violence - and my experience, along with that of the tens of thousands of Americans whose lives are destroyed or cut short by cocaine, is proof that narcoterrorist attacks aren't happening in some world far, far away. They have direct implications for, and pose a danger, to Americans.
Colombia is the source of up to 94 percent of cocaine seized in the United States and an operating base for at least five U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
That near and present danger is why, despite huge setbacks under the Petro administration, President Trump sought to maintain amicable relations with Colombia. That is why, even during the most difficult days, our partnership with security forces has never ebbed. And that is why we are optimistic that under President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, our efforts to stem coca cultivation and cocaine production will reach new heights. Doing that will require us to use all tools at our disposal to rein in armed groups that profit from mayhem and whose raison d'etre often involves perverse ideological crusades.
Earlier this year, for example, the FARC EP said its guerrilla members, quote, "will give [their] last drop of blood fighting against the [American] empire" end quote.
That imperialism charge is ironic because its declarants seem more intent to fight innocent civilians. One was a farmer recently driving his truck down a highway in Cauca. A gas cylinder bomb exploded just up ahead of him, striking a bus during a traffic jam. His truck went flying from the blast.
Unfortunately, and unforgivably, events like this became more commonplace in recent years. President Gustavo Petro's failed "Total Peace" negotiations allowed narcoterrorists to regroup, drove eradication to historic lows, and paused extraditions of five heinous criminal leaders.
One result of his policies is that cocaine production potential now vastly exceeds interdiction efforts. Another is the carnage: 173 police officers and soldiers gave their lives trying to protect their country and ours.
The new President-elect de la Espriella has rightfully called what Colombia is facing a pandemic of insecurity. He has said that "Colombia and the United States, united by friendship and the principles we share, constitute an indestructible force in defense of freedom, the defeat of narcoterrorism, and the prosperity of the Americas."
That friendship and indestructible force can be seen in the many ways my office at the State Department has mitigated the downward spiral: supporting Black Hawks and elite units that have taken down FTO leaders; providing U.S.-built vessels, drones, counter drone capabilities, and forensic software that form the backbone of Colombia's counternarcotics operations; exchanging intelligence; and squeezing the money launderers who finance these criminal organizations.
During the Trump administration, INL had also refocused programs - ending ineffective and unaccountable ones and insisting on conditionality and burden sharing.
President-elect de la Espriella's victory represents a genuine opportunity to reset the bilateral counter-narcotics relationship after years of falling behind. We are not waiting. We have a clear, prioritized agenda ready for day one: commit to an aggressive target for reductions in coca cultivation, including through the use of eradication drones and a long-pending civilian eradicator contract; redouble lab destructions and cocaine seizures; clear a path to complete the five presently suspended extraditions; strengthen cooperation on illicit finance; and empower security forces and Colombia's justice system to deny impunity to narco-terrorists.
If the new government delivers, we are prepared to deepen our partnership across every dimension. The Colombian people deserve a government that fights for them. We believe they're about to get one.
We ask for this Committee's continued support for INL's Colombia programs.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA07/20260715/119452/HHRG-119-FA07-Wstate-WeilandF-20260715.pdf
* * *
Thank you Chairwoman Salazar, Ranking Member Castro, Members of the Subcommittee.
Eleven months ago, Colombian narcoterrorists attacked a U.S.-titled INL helicopter during a coca eradication operation in Antioquia. Thirteen police officers lost their lives from a mortar that was planted ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere released the following testimony by F. Cartwright Weiland, assistant secretary of State for international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, for from a July 15, 2026, hearing entitled "A New Beginning for Colombia": * * * Thank you Chairwoman Salazar, Ranking Member Castro, Members of the Subcommittee. Eleven months ago, Colombian narcoterrorists attacked a U.S.-titled INL helicopter during a coca eradication operation in Antioquia. Thirteen police officers lost their lives from a mortar that was plantedin the ground and detonated when the helicopter landed.
This was a tragedy for the families that lost loved ones, and for Colombia. But it hit home for me because earlier that summer, I had flown into the same area, on another INL bird, to observe eradication.
This proximity of events is one of many examples showing how deeply entwined U.S. interests are in Colombia's web of violence - and my experience, along with that of the tens of thousands of Americans whose lives are destroyed or cut short by cocaine, is proof that narcoterrorist attacks aren't happening in some world far, far away. They have direct implications for, and pose a danger, to Americans.
Colombia is the source of up to 94 percent of cocaine seized in the United States and an operating base for at least five U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).
That near and present danger is why, despite huge setbacks under the Petro administration, President Trump sought to maintain amicable relations with Colombia. That is why, even during the most difficult days, our partnership with security forces has never ebbed. And that is why we are optimistic that under President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella, our efforts to stem coca cultivation and cocaine production will reach new heights. Doing that will require us to use all tools at our disposal to rein in armed groups that profit from mayhem and whose raison d'etre often involves perverse ideological crusades.
Earlier this year, for example, the FARC EP said its guerrilla members, quote, "will give [their] last drop of blood fighting against the [American] empire" end quote.
That imperialism charge is ironic because its declarants seem more intent to fight innocent civilians. One was a farmer recently driving his truck down a highway in Cauca. A gas cylinder bomb exploded just up ahead of him, striking a bus during a traffic jam. His truck went flying from the blast.
Unfortunately, and unforgivably, events like this became more commonplace in recent years. President Gustavo Petro's failed "Total Peace" negotiations allowed narcoterrorists to regroup, drove eradication to historic lows, and paused extraditions of five heinous criminal leaders.
One result of his policies is that cocaine production potential now vastly exceeds interdiction efforts. Another is the carnage: 173 police officers and soldiers gave their lives trying to protect their country and ours.
The new President-elect de la Espriella has rightfully called what Colombia is facing a pandemic of insecurity. He has said that "Colombia and the United States, united by friendship and the principles we share, constitute an indestructible force in defense of freedom, the defeat of narcoterrorism, and the prosperity of the Americas."
That friendship and indestructible force can be seen in the many ways my office at the State Department has mitigated the downward spiral: supporting Black Hawks and elite units that have taken down FTO leaders; providing U.S.-built vessels, drones, counter drone capabilities, and forensic software that form the backbone of Colombia's counternarcotics operations; exchanging intelligence; and squeezing the money launderers who finance these criminal organizations.
During the Trump administration, INL had also refocused programs - ending ineffective and unaccountable ones and insisting on conditionality and burden sharing.
President-elect de la Espriella's victory represents a genuine opportunity to reset the bilateral counter-narcotics relationship after years of falling behind. We are not waiting. We have a clear, prioritized agenda ready for day one: commit to an aggressive target for reductions in coca cultivation, including through the use of eradication drones and a long-pending civilian eradicator contract; redouble lab destructions and cocaine seizures; clear a path to complete the five presently suspended extraditions; strengthen cooperation on illicit finance; and empower security forces and Colombia's justice system to deny impunity to narco-terrorists.
If the new government delivers, we are prepared to deepen our partnership across every dimension. The Colombian people deserve a government that fights for them. We believe they're about to get one.
We ask for this Committee's continued support for INL's Colombia programs.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA07/20260715/119452/HHRG-119-FA07-Wstate-WeilandF-20260715.pdf
Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy & Business Affairs Orr Testifies Before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittees
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific and Subcommittee on South and Central Asia released the following testimony by Caleb Orr, assistant secretary of State for economic, energy, and business affairs, from a July 14, 2026, joint hearing entitled "More Bang for the Buck: Aligning Commercial Diplomacy Between State and Commerce":
* * *
.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Kim, Subcommittee Ranking Member Bera, Subcommittee Chairman Huizenga, Subcommittee Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific and Subcommittee on South and Central Asia released the following testimony by Caleb Orr, assistant secretary of State for economic, energy, and business affairs, from a July 14, 2026, joint hearing entitled "More Bang for the Buck: Aligning Commercial Diplomacy Between State and Commerce": * * * . Subcommittee Chairwoman Kim, Subcommittee Ranking Member Bera, Subcommittee Chairman Huizenga, Subcommittee Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testifyabout the State Department's work on commercial diplomacy. The State Department acknowledges and appreciates the Subcommittee's ongoing support for the U.S. government's commercial diplomacy efforts.
Commercial Diplomacy is a Foreign Policy Priority
President Trump's National Security Strategy articulates the fundamental relationship between economic security and national security, recognizing the United States's economic strength as the foundation for our global leadership and military power, and our commercial presence in strategic infrastructure in key theaters as an important source of leverage. The State Department is focused on advancing the President's priorities of balancing trade, securing critical supply chains, reindustrializing the American economy, reviving our defense industrial base, establishing energy dominance, and preserving and growing our global economic leadership.
Under Secretary Rubio's leadership, we are leveraging commercial diplomacy to drive this agenda. Commercial diplomacy helps the U.S. forge and maintains strategic partnerships, secure critical supply chains, open foreign markets for American firms, and create opportunities for American workers. Moreover, commercial diplomacy in the Trump Administration is a key tool of diplomatic statecraft. For example, President Trump's leadership in securing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan treated U.S. economic engagement not only as a byproduct of successful diplomacy, but a catalyst for it. Similarly, in Venezuela the Trump Administration is focused on economic recovery as a key component of our strategy--which has become all the more urgent after the devastating June 24 earthquakes.
In support of these objectives worldwide, earlier this year, the State Department launched the Commercial Diplomacy Enterprise, or CDE - the most significant reorganization of State's economic statecraft capacity in years. The CDE has organized and systematized State's commercial diplomacy workstreams. We developed a single, unified platform to centralize all economic and commercial cases the Department is tracking, including both Commerce's Advocacy Center cases that State supports and cases falling outside its jurisdiction, addressing debilitating data fragmentation problems and internal coordination challenges. We have also stood up new processes to consistently elevate commercial cases for Department leadership's engagement, and a system to share strategic deal opportunities with interagency partners. State has many tools that it uses to support U.S. companies and trusted providers, ranging from visa issuances and anti-corruption sanctions to foreign assistance. The CDE integrates commercial diplomacy into the Department's core functions, identifying and developing strategic commercial opportunities using the full suite of State and interagency tools - ensuring the United States competes where it matters most.
As a result, since January 20, 2025, the State Department has contributed to over $515 billion in wins for American companies, supporting an estimate of more than 1.4 million U.S. jobs.
Coordination with the Departments of Commerce and Energy
To advance the Administration's trade and investment agenda, Commerce and State bring distinct but complementary strengths. State leverages its global diplomatic presence, flexible diplomatic and foreign assistance tools, and regional expertise in nearly all overseas economies with over 1,500 economic officers stationed at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide across more than 170 countries. Our Ambassadorial leadership, broad purview over U.S. strategic interests and foreign policy, and contacts with foreign governments and ministries allow us to contribute to the efforts of interagency partners. For its part, Commerce's U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service is focused on promoting U.S. exports and inbound investment into the United States, as well as supporting U.S. commercial interests overseas. State also works with the Department of Energy, leveraging its extensive technical expertise and attaches at more than 25 U.S. embassies around the world.
We work closely together on many initiatives, including Deal Teams, commercial advocacy through Commerce's Advocacy Center, and through the Partner Post program.
In many foreign markets where the Commerce Department does not maintain a direct overseas presence, State Department economic officers help facilitate Commerce's services through the Partner Post program. In FY25, Partner Posts delivered 116 client-verified commercial wins totaling more than $13.7 billion and assisted 3,652 U.S. companies through 280 Commercial Service-branded services, a significant increase from the $2.98 billion in wins reported in FY24.
Conclusion
Under Secretary Rubio's leadership, State will continue to leverage commercial diplomacy, in coordination with our interagency partners, to help American companies succeed around the world, delivering for American workers and strengthening our economic and national security.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20260714/119301/HHRG-119-FA05-Wstate-OrrC-20260714.pdf
* * *
.
Subcommittee Chairwoman Kim, Subcommittee Ranking Member Bera, Subcommittee Chairman Huizenga, Subcommittee Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific and Subcommittee on South and Central Asia released the following testimony by Caleb Orr, assistant secretary of State for economic, energy, and business affairs, from a July 14, 2026, joint hearing entitled "More Bang for the Buck: Aligning Commercial Diplomacy Between State and Commerce": * * * . Subcommittee Chairwoman Kim, Subcommittee Ranking Member Bera, Subcommittee Chairman Huizenga, Subcommittee Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testifyabout the State Department's work on commercial diplomacy. The State Department acknowledges and appreciates the Subcommittee's ongoing support for the U.S. government's commercial diplomacy efforts.
Commercial Diplomacy is a Foreign Policy Priority
President Trump's National Security Strategy articulates the fundamental relationship between economic security and national security, recognizing the United States's economic strength as the foundation for our global leadership and military power, and our commercial presence in strategic infrastructure in key theaters as an important source of leverage. The State Department is focused on advancing the President's priorities of balancing trade, securing critical supply chains, reindustrializing the American economy, reviving our defense industrial base, establishing energy dominance, and preserving and growing our global economic leadership.
Under Secretary Rubio's leadership, we are leveraging commercial diplomacy to drive this agenda. Commercial diplomacy helps the U.S. forge and maintains strategic partnerships, secure critical supply chains, open foreign markets for American firms, and create opportunities for American workers. Moreover, commercial diplomacy in the Trump Administration is a key tool of diplomatic statecraft. For example, President Trump's leadership in securing peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan treated U.S. economic engagement not only as a byproduct of successful diplomacy, but a catalyst for it. Similarly, in Venezuela the Trump Administration is focused on economic recovery as a key component of our strategy--which has become all the more urgent after the devastating June 24 earthquakes.
In support of these objectives worldwide, earlier this year, the State Department launched the Commercial Diplomacy Enterprise, or CDE - the most significant reorganization of State's economic statecraft capacity in years. The CDE has organized and systematized State's commercial diplomacy workstreams. We developed a single, unified platform to centralize all economic and commercial cases the Department is tracking, including both Commerce's Advocacy Center cases that State supports and cases falling outside its jurisdiction, addressing debilitating data fragmentation problems and internal coordination challenges. We have also stood up new processes to consistently elevate commercial cases for Department leadership's engagement, and a system to share strategic deal opportunities with interagency partners. State has many tools that it uses to support U.S. companies and trusted providers, ranging from visa issuances and anti-corruption sanctions to foreign assistance. The CDE integrates commercial diplomacy into the Department's core functions, identifying and developing strategic commercial opportunities using the full suite of State and interagency tools - ensuring the United States competes where it matters most.
As a result, since January 20, 2025, the State Department has contributed to over $515 billion in wins for American companies, supporting an estimate of more than 1.4 million U.S. jobs.
Coordination with the Departments of Commerce and Energy
To advance the Administration's trade and investment agenda, Commerce and State bring distinct but complementary strengths. State leverages its global diplomatic presence, flexible diplomatic and foreign assistance tools, and regional expertise in nearly all overseas economies with over 1,500 economic officers stationed at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide across more than 170 countries. Our Ambassadorial leadership, broad purview over U.S. strategic interests and foreign policy, and contacts with foreign governments and ministries allow us to contribute to the efforts of interagency partners. For its part, Commerce's U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service is focused on promoting U.S. exports and inbound investment into the United States, as well as supporting U.S. commercial interests overseas. State also works with the Department of Energy, leveraging its extensive technical expertise and attaches at more than 25 U.S. embassies around the world.
We work closely together on many initiatives, including Deal Teams, commercial advocacy through Commerce's Advocacy Center, and through the Partner Post program.
In many foreign markets where the Commerce Department does not maintain a direct overseas presence, State Department economic officers help facilitate Commerce's services through the Partner Post program. In FY25, Partner Posts delivered 116 client-verified commercial wins totaling more than $13.7 billion and assisted 3,652 U.S. companies through 280 Commercial Service-branded services, a significant increase from the $2.98 billion in wins reported in FY24.
Conclusion
Under Secretary Rubio's leadership, State will continue to leverage commercial diplomacy, in coordination with our interagency partners, to help American companies succeed around the world, delivering for American workers and strengthening our economic and national security.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20260714/119301/HHRG-119-FA05-Wstate-OrrC-20260714.pdf
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration Nominee Warren Testifies Before Senate Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee released the following testimony by Abby Warren, President Trump's nominee to be assistant secretary of Commerce for export administration, from a July 23, 2026, confirmation hearing:
* * *
Thank you, Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Warren, and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today as President Trump's nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security.
I would like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me and Secretary ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee released the following testimony by Abby Warren, President Trump's nominee to be assistant secretary of Commerce for export administration, from a July 23, 2026, confirmation hearing: * * * Thank you, Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Warren, and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today as President Trump's nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security. I would like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me and SecretaryLutnick and Undersecretary Kessler for their support and confidence. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and colleagues who are here with me today, including my parents, Paul and Donna, and my husband, Patrick--he is the most wonderful partner and his encouragement and support have made my public service possible.
Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of serving in all three branches of the federal government. I have worked in the United States Senate, the federal judiciary, and the Executive Branch, where I currently serve as Deputy General Counsel for AI and Technology at the Department of Commerce. Those experiences have provided me with a deep appreciation for our constitutional system, the importance of the rule of law, and the responsibility entrusted to public servants.
Over the past two years, I have worked across the Commerce Department and with interagency partners throughout the federal government to navigate complex legal questions and advance the Department's priorities. Those experiences have prepared me to lead a large organization, manage complex interagency processes, and deliver results in support of the Department's national security and economic missions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security plays a vital role in protecting the national security, economic security, and unmatched technological achievement and scientific innovation of the United States. Export controls are among the most important tools available to ensure that America's most sensitive technologies, products, and expertise do not contribute to the military modernization or strategic ambitions of our adversaries. At the same time, BIS helps preserve the conditions that prevent the theft of American intellectual property and allow American companies, researchers, and innovators to remain the global leaders in developing the technologies that will shape the future.
The evolving landscape presents significant opportunities for BIS to demonstrate its leadership and expand its vital impact. Emerging technologies are developing at unprecedented speed, supply chains are increasingly global, and strategic competitors are devoting substantial resources to acquiring advanced technologies with military and intelligence applications.
Meeting these challenges requires a regulatory system that is effective, adaptable, and grounded in close coordination with our allies and partners.
If confirmed, I will faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress, work to ensure that BIS's export controls are effective and enforceable, and collaborate closely with Congress, our international partners, and stakeholders across government and industry to advance U.S. national security interests.
I am proud of my service at the Department of Commerce and would be honored to continue serving the American people in this new capacity, if confirmed.
Thank you for your consideration of my nomination. I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/warren_testimony_7-23-26.pdf
* * *
Thank you, Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Warren, and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today as President Trump's nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security.
I would like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me and Secretary ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee released the following testimony by Abby Warren, President Trump's nominee to be assistant secretary of Commerce for export administration, from a July 23, 2026, confirmation hearing: * * * Thank you, Chairman Scott, Ranking Member Warren, and members of the Committee, for the opportunity to appear before you today as President Trump's nominee to serve as Assistant Secretary for Export Administration at the Bureau of Industry and Security. I would like to begin by thanking President Trump for nominating me and SecretaryLutnick and Undersecretary Kessler for their support and confidence. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and colleagues who are here with me today, including my parents, Paul and Donna, and my husband, Patrick--he is the most wonderful partner and his encouragement and support have made my public service possible.
Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of serving in all three branches of the federal government. I have worked in the United States Senate, the federal judiciary, and the Executive Branch, where I currently serve as Deputy General Counsel for AI and Technology at the Department of Commerce. Those experiences have provided me with a deep appreciation for our constitutional system, the importance of the rule of law, and the responsibility entrusted to public servants.
Over the past two years, I have worked across the Commerce Department and with interagency partners throughout the federal government to navigate complex legal questions and advance the Department's priorities. Those experiences have prepared me to lead a large organization, manage complex interagency processes, and deliver results in support of the Department's national security and economic missions.
The Bureau of Industry and Security plays a vital role in protecting the national security, economic security, and unmatched technological achievement and scientific innovation of the United States. Export controls are among the most important tools available to ensure that America's most sensitive technologies, products, and expertise do not contribute to the military modernization or strategic ambitions of our adversaries. At the same time, BIS helps preserve the conditions that prevent the theft of American intellectual property and allow American companies, researchers, and innovators to remain the global leaders in developing the technologies that will shape the future.
The evolving landscape presents significant opportunities for BIS to demonstrate its leadership and expand its vital impact. Emerging technologies are developing at unprecedented speed, supply chains are increasingly global, and strategic competitors are devoting substantial resources to acquiring advanced technologies with military and intelligence applications.
Meeting these challenges requires a regulatory system that is effective, adaptable, and grounded in close coordination with our allies and partners.
If confirmed, I will faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress, work to ensure that BIS's export controls are effective and enforceable, and collaborate closely with Congress, our international partners, and stakeholders across government and industry to advance U.S. national security interests.
I am proud of my service at the Department of Commerce and would be honored to continue serving the American people in this new capacity, if confirmed.
Thank you for your consideration of my nomination. I look forward to your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/warren_testimony_7-23-26.pdf
Assistant Secretary of Commerce Fogel Testifies Before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittees
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific and Subcommittee on South and Central Asia released the following testimony by David L. Fogel, assistant secretary of Commerce and director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service International Trade Administration, from a July 14, 2026, joint hearing entitled "More Bang for the Buck: Aligning Commercial Diplomacy Between State and Commerce":
* * *
Chairwoman Kim, Ranking Member Bera, Chairman Huizenga, Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittees - thank you for the opportunity ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific and Subcommittee on South and Central Asia released the following testimony by David L. Fogel, assistant secretary of Commerce and director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service International Trade Administration, from a July 14, 2026, joint hearing entitled "More Bang for the Buck: Aligning Commercial Diplomacy Between State and Commerce": * * * Chairwoman Kim, Ranking Member Bera, Chairman Huizenga, Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittees - thank you for the opportunityto come before you today. I consider it the honor of my life to be serving President Trump and Secretary Lutnick as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service.
This Administration is determined to deliver concrete commercial outcomes that create opportunities for American businesses, support American workers, and strengthen communities across the country. The Global Markets business unit within the International Trade Administration advances these priorities by promoting U.S. export growth, facilitating foreign direct investment, and driving commercial advocacy and diplomacy on behalf of American businesses and workers.
Global Markets has achieved historic results since the start of the second Trump Administration, building on a record of success since it joined the Department of Commerce in 1981. Last year, Global Markets helped U.S. businesses, communities, and workers win an incredible $289 billion in client-verified deals and assisted 76,400 U.S. firms. This work supported 1.3 million American jobs, more than in 2024 and 2023 combined.
In May, we also hosted the SelectUSA Investment Summit where we welcomed over 5,500 attendees from more than 100 international markets, including over 1,100 economic developers representing all 55 U.S. states and territories, and 31 first-time rural and tribal Economic Development Organizations. The 2026 Summit alone generated more than $56 billion in new and planned investment commitments, including a record $2.5 billion in onsite announcements.
This is all possible due to the highly integrated nature of the different offices within Global Markets, and Global Markets' close relationships with other business units within the International Trade Administration (ITA). As just one example, the SelectUSA Investment Summit is the product of the work of the SelectUSA team based in Washington, DC, as well as Commercial Service staff across the globe and around the United States. The Summit's success was driven by their combined efforts over the full year and not the product of just one small office. Similarly, ITA's Advocacy Center, which secured a record $244 billion in wins for U.S. companies in 2025, does not operate in a vacuum - it relies on the foreign commercial service to amplify the U.S. advocacy message in foreign countries.
I also want to acknowledge the important partnership between the Commerce Department and State Department when it comes to commercial activity abroad.
Our commercial officers throughout the world work collaboratively with State's economic officers - each bringing distinct but complementary expertise and responsibilities to advance U.S. commercial and economic interests. This model has proven extraordinarily successful under the leadership of President Trump, Secretary Lutnick, and Secretary Rubio and remains well positioned to continue to advance U.S. commercial and economic interests.
In President Trump's first term, I worked as Chief of Staff at the Export-Import Bank, as well as Senior Advisor and Chief Business Development Officer for the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth. I know from firsthand experience that what we do within Global Markets, the International Trade Administration, and Department of Commerce - including our successes from last year and throughout Global Markets' history - reflects a distinctive combination of expertise, global reach, and commercial focus that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere in the federal government.
Global Markets is moving quickly to strengthen our operations, modernize our approach, and better align resources with the Administration's commercial priorities. Under my direction, Global Markets is concentrating its efforts where our expertise, global presence, and commercial tools can have the greatest impact on economic growth, job creation, and economic security. This approach helps us direct our time and resources toward the most consequential opportunities facing American businesses and workers.
In short, the Department of Commerce strongly values the Foreign Commercial Service and the vital role it plays in advancing American commercial interests abroad. The Foreign Commercial Service and all of Global Markets are central to the federal government's ability to execute President Trump's America First trade and investment agenda, supporting U.S. businesses around the world, and delivering results for American workers, manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all sizes.
Thank you again, and I look forward to our discussion and your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20260714/119301/HHRG-119-FA05-Wstate-FogelD-20260714.pdf
* * *
Chairwoman Kim, Ranking Member Bera, Chairman Huizenga, Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittees - thank you for the opportunity ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific and Subcommittee on South and Central Asia released the following testimony by David L. Fogel, assistant secretary of Commerce and director general of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service International Trade Administration, from a July 14, 2026, joint hearing entitled "More Bang for the Buck: Aligning Commercial Diplomacy Between State and Commerce": * * * Chairwoman Kim, Ranking Member Bera, Chairman Huizenga, Ranking Member Kamlager-Dove, and members of the Subcommittees - thank you for the opportunityto come before you today. I consider it the honor of my life to be serving President Trump and Secretary Lutnick as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service.
This Administration is determined to deliver concrete commercial outcomes that create opportunities for American businesses, support American workers, and strengthen communities across the country. The Global Markets business unit within the International Trade Administration advances these priorities by promoting U.S. export growth, facilitating foreign direct investment, and driving commercial advocacy and diplomacy on behalf of American businesses and workers.
Global Markets has achieved historic results since the start of the second Trump Administration, building on a record of success since it joined the Department of Commerce in 1981. Last year, Global Markets helped U.S. businesses, communities, and workers win an incredible $289 billion in client-verified deals and assisted 76,400 U.S. firms. This work supported 1.3 million American jobs, more than in 2024 and 2023 combined.
In May, we also hosted the SelectUSA Investment Summit where we welcomed over 5,500 attendees from more than 100 international markets, including over 1,100 economic developers representing all 55 U.S. states and territories, and 31 first-time rural and tribal Economic Development Organizations. The 2026 Summit alone generated more than $56 billion in new and planned investment commitments, including a record $2.5 billion in onsite announcements.
This is all possible due to the highly integrated nature of the different offices within Global Markets, and Global Markets' close relationships with other business units within the International Trade Administration (ITA). As just one example, the SelectUSA Investment Summit is the product of the work of the SelectUSA team based in Washington, DC, as well as Commercial Service staff across the globe and around the United States. The Summit's success was driven by their combined efforts over the full year and not the product of just one small office. Similarly, ITA's Advocacy Center, which secured a record $244 billion in wins for U.S. companies in 2025, does not operate in a vacuum - it relies on the foreign commercial service to amplify the U.S. advocacy message in foreign countries.
I also want to acknowledge the important partnership between the Commerce Department and State Department when it comes to commercial activity abroad.
Our commercial officers throughout the world work collaboratively with State's economic officers - each bringing distinct but complementary expertise and responsibilities to advance U.S. commercial and economic interests. This model has proven extraordinarily successful under the leadership of President Trump, Secretary Lutnick, and Secretary Rubio and remains well positioned to continue to advance U.S. commercial and economic interests.
In President Trump's first term, I worked as Chief of Staff at the Export-Import Bank, as well as Senior Advisor and Chief Business Development Officer for the Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth. I know from firsthand experience that what we do within Global Markets, the International Trade Administration, and Department of Commerce - including our successes from last year and throughout Global Markets' history - reflects a distinctive combination of expertise, global reach, and commercial focus that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere in the federal government.
Global Markets is moving quickly to strengthen our operations, modernize our approach, and better align resources with the Administration's commercial priorities. Under my direction, Global Markets is concentrating its efforts where our expertise, global presence, and commercial tools can have the greatest impact on economic growth, job creation, and economic security. This approach helps us direct our time and resources toward the most consequential opportunities facing American businesses and workers.
In short, the Department of Commerce strongly values the Foreign Commercial Service and the vital role it plays in advancing American commercial interests abroad. The Foreign Commercial Service and all of Global Markets are central to the federal government's ability to execute President Trump's America First trade and investment agenda, supporting U.S. businesses around the world, and delivering results for American workers, manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses of all sizes.
Thank you again, and I look forward to our discussion and your questions.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA05/20260714/119301/HHRG-119-FA05-Wstate-FogelD-20260714.pdf
AS HUDSON VALLEY FAMILIES FACE HEALTH CARE CUTS AND RISING PRICES, CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN CONTINUES DELIVERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF WITH AUGUST C.A.R.E.S. VAN EVENTS
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Rep. Pat Ryan, D-New York, issued the following news release:
* * *
AS HUDSON VALLEY FAMILIES FACE HEALTH CARE CUTS AND RISING PRICES, CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN CONTINUES DELIVERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF WITH AUGUST C.A.R.E.S. VAN EVENTS
*
As Hudson Valley Families Face Health Care Cuts and Rising Prices, Congressman Pat Ryan Continues Delivering Direct Assistance and Relief with August C.A.R.E.S. Van Events
With the C.A.R.E.S. Van, Ryan and his team deliver one-on-one assistance navigating federal programs and accessing benefits including Social Security, Medicaid, ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Rep. Pat Ryan, D-New York, issued the following news release: * * * AS HUDSON VALLEY FAMILIES FACE HEALTH CARE CUTS AND RISING PRICES, CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN CONTINUES DELIVERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF WITH AUGUST C.A.R.E.S. VAN EVENTS * As Hudson Valley Families Face Health Care Cuts and Rising Prices, Congressman Pat Ryan Continues Delivering Direct Assistance and Relief with August C.A.R.E.S. Van Events With the C.A.R.E.S. Van, Ryan and his team deliver one-on-one assistance navigating federal programs and accessing benefits including Social Security, Medicaid,and Medicare directly to constituents in their own community
Ryan's team has visited every community in NY-18 with the Van and secured over $40 million in casework assistance for NY-18 constituents
KINGSTON, NY - Today, Congressman Pat Ryan announced the schedule of August events for his mobile office, the Constituent Advocacy Resources Empowerment Services (C.A.R.E.S.) Van, across the Hudson Valley. Congressman Ryan's C.A.R.E.S. Van, staffed by his team of highly-trained caseworkers, will bring direct assistance with federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and IRS to Hudson Valley families right in their own community. Ryan's C.A.R.E.S. Van team will continue to be all hands on deck to aid constituents hurt by the nonstop cuts to critical federal programs, closures, and uncertainty - in particular regarding health care.
"I've heard the heartwrenching stories from countless Hudson Valley families who can no longer afford health care coverage or aren't sure how they're going to put food on the table. My team and I are leaving no stone unturned to make sure they get every bit of relief they can," said Congressman Pat Ryan. "Whether you are worried about finding new health care coverage, need help tracking down a long overdue tax return, or have questions about receiving your federal benefits, my team is all-hands-on-deck to help however we can in every corner of the Hudson Valley."
Congressman Ryan's C.A.R.E.S. Van assists constituents of NY-18 in accessing earned benefits, such as Veterans' Affairs benefits and Social Security, federal grant funding, passports and visas, immigration and naturalization services, and resolving issues with federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service.
"For months and months, I heard absolutely nothing back from the VA and was getting so frustrated. When I saw the Congressman's C.A.R.E.S. Van flyer, I was so excited," said Helen Adams of Wallkill. "Within just a few weeks, I got a letter in the mail back telling me that I was approved for benefits! I can breathe easier now knowing that I will finally be getting the VA benefits I am entitled to. Thank you to Congressman Ryan for caring about seniors like me and having a team who can help us navigate the agencies that we depend on to be able to survive."
"Congressman Ryan's team was extremely polite, professional, and emphatic towards my situation as a disabled veteran," said Middletown veteran Nicholas White. "They contacted me to inform me of everything and what they could do to assist. I was granted 100% P&T disability compensation. My wife and I couldn't be happier. Thank you!"
"We are so grateful for the excellent assistance we received from Congressman Ryan's office," said David Friedman of New Paltz. "For two years we have been trying to resolve a problem with the IRS, and because of the intervention of his office, the issue has been properly resolved, and we actually received interest on an amount due from the IRS! It took something special to get this matter looked at and Congressman Ryan's office provided that!"
"My 2022 tax return was held up by the IRS for nine months," said Robert Warhola of Kingston. "I had plans for my refund. The case worker assured me this problem could be resolved in two weeks. As promised, I received my refund electronically. It is nice to see our government working efficiently."
"Thanks to Congressman Ryan's office, the IRS finally issued refunds this spring for 2 returns I filed back in 2021," said Stacy Quinn of Rhinebeck. " After a very frustrating year of follow up - including an appointment at the IRS regional office in Poughkeepsie, multiple IRS assurances that I would hear back but never did, and a request for help from a senator's office that was ignored - I was about to lose hope. Congressman Ryan's office responded immediately, however, provided frequent updates, and I received the missing refunds in 6 weeks."
The C.A.R.E.S. Van's casework team meets and listens to community members and answers and offers assistance with federal programs and benefits including, but not limited to:
Social Security, Veterans Affairs (VA), Medicare, Medicaid, federal student loans, federal grants for local governments, small businesses and organizations, and households, IRS taxes and tax returns, passports, immigration services, military records and awards, the Office of Personnel for federal workers, connecting with Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) and the military community in the Hudson Valley, U.S. Service Academy nominations, and more!
In March of 2024, the C.A.R.E.S. Van completed its first district tour, visiting every one of the 82 cities, towns, and villages in NY-18 in under 10 months. During the first district tour, the Van reached over 1,500 constituents and logged 3,341 miles to bring assistance directly to Hudson Valley families where they are at. The Van has been critical in assisting Ryan's team in securing over $40 million in casework assistance for NY-18 constituents.
The C.A.R.E.S. Van has also been mobilized for specialized events, resource fairs, community events, and to deliver emergency response resources including, but not limited to:
* Bringing direct assistance from the Social Security Administration back to Ulster County following closure of the county's only Social Security Administration office.
* Partnering with dozens of community organizations, the Social Security Administration, the Center for Medicare, local governments from across the Hudson Valley for Senior Resource Fairs.
* Partnering with Veterans Service Organizations, local governments, and the Hudson Valley military community to deliver Veterans and Military Families Resource Fairs and for Congressman Ryan's Veterans Week of Action that made stops in every county in NY-18.
* Mobilizing a coalition of community partners, emergency response organizations, and local governments to bring direct relief to communities impacted by the catastrophic flooding events of July 2023.
* Partnering with the New York State Comptroller's Office of Unclaimed Funds to connect constituents with money owed to them by the State.
* Delivering direct assistance with federal agencies to community events including the Dutchess County Senior Picnics, National Night Out in partnership with local law enforcement agencies, community Trunk-or-Treat Halloween celebrations, community farmers' markets, Kingston's Mexican and Central American Independence Celebration, Warwick's Mental Health Awareness Celebration, the Orange County Veterans' Picnic, and more!
The schedule for the C.A.R.E.S. Van's August events is as follows, and updates will be provided via social media.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5:
11:00AM - 3:00PM
Cornwall Farmers Market
183 Main Street
Cornwall, NY 12518
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7:
5:00PM - 8:00PM
Town of Monroe National Night Out
199 Dunderberg Road
Central Valley, NY 10917
TUESDAY, AUGUST 11:
10:00AM - 2:00PM
Newburgh Healthy Market
130 Broadway
Newburgh, NY 12550
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12:
11:30AM - 1:00PM
Dutchess County Office for Aging Senior Picnic - Poughkeepsie
Stitzel Field
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
SATURDAY, AUGUST 15:
9:00AM - 1:00PM
Lakeside Farmers Market
Winstanley Park
133 Windermere Avenue
Greenwood Lake, NY 10925
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19:
11:30AM - 1:00PM
Dutchess County Office for Aging Senior Picnic - LaGrange
Freedom Park
LaGrange, NY 12540
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22:
10:00AM - 3:00PM
New Paltz Farmers Market
196 Main St, New Paltz, NY 12561
MONDAY, AUGUST 31:
4:00PM - 7:00PM
Wappingers Farmers Market
20 Middletown Road
Wappingers Falls, NY 12590
***
Original text here: https://patryan.house.gov/media/press-releases/hudson-valley-families-face-health-care-cuts-and-rising-prices-congressman-7
* * *
AS HUDSON VALLEY FAMILIES FACE HEALTH CARE CUTS AND RISING PRICES, CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN CONTINUES DELIVERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF WITH AUGUST C.A.R.E.S. VAN EVENTS
*
As Hudson Valley Families Face Health Care Cuts and Rising Prices, Congressman Pat Ryan Continues Delivering Direct Assistance and Relief with August C.A.R.E.S. Van Events
With the C.A.R.E.S. Van, Ryan and his team deliver one-on-one assistance navigating federal programs and accessing benefits including Social Security, Medicaid, ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- Rep. Pat Ryan, D-New York, issued the following news release: * * * AS HUDSON VALLEY FAMILIES FACE HEALTH CARE CUTS AND RISING PRICES, CONGRESSMAN PAT RYAN CONTINUES DELIVERING DIRECT ASSISTANCE AND RELIEF WITH AUGUST C.A.R.E.S. VAN EVENTS * As Hudson Valley Families Face Health Care Cuts and Rising Prices, Congressman Pat Ryan Continues Delivering Direct Assistance and Relief with August C.A.R.E.S. Van Events With the C.A.R.E.S. Van, Ryan and his team deliver one-on-one assistance navigating federal programs and accessing benefits including Social Security, Medicaid,and Medicare directly to constituents in their own community
Ryan's team has visited every community in NY-18 with the Van and secured over $40 million in casework assistance for NY-18 constituents
KINGSTON, NY - Today, Congressman Pat Ryan announced the schedule of August events for his mobile office, the Constituent Advocacy Resources Empowerment Services (C.A.R.E.S.) Van, across the Hudson Valley. Congressman Ryan's C.A.R.E.S. Van, staffed by his team of highly-trained caseworkers, will bring direct assistance with federal agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and IRS to Hudson Valley families right in their own community. Ryan's C.A.R.E.S. Van team will continue to be all hands on deck to aid constituents hurt by the nonstop cuts to critical federal programs, closures, and uncertainty - in particular regarding health care.
"I've heard the heartwrenching stories from countless Hudson Valley families who can no longer afford health care coverage or aren't sure how they're going to put food on the table. My team and I are leaving no stone unturned to make sure they get every bit of relief they can," said Congressman Pat Ryan. "Whether you are worried about finding new health care coverage, need help tracking down a long overdue tax return, or have questions about receiving your federal benefits, my team is all-hands-on-deck to help however we can in every corner of the Hudson Valley."
Congressman Ryan's C.A.R.E.S. Van assists constituents of NY-18 in accessing earned benefits, such as Veterans' Affairs benefits and Social Security, federal grant funding, passports and visas, immigration and naturalization services, and resolving issues with federal agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service.
"For months and months, I heard absolutely nothing back from the VA and was getting so frustrated. When I saw the Congressman's C.A.R.E.S. Van flyer, I was so excited," said Helen Adams of Wallkill. "Within just a few weeks, I got a letter in the mail back telling me that I was approved for benefits! I can breathe easier now knowing that I will finally be getting the VA benefits I am entitled to. Thank you to Congressman Ryan for caring about seniors like me and having a team who can help us navigate the agencies that we depend on to be able to survive."
"Congressman Ryan's team was extremely polite, professional, and emphatic towards my situation as a disabled veteran," said Middletown veteran Nicholas White. "They contacted me to inform me of everything and what they could do to assist. I was granted 100% P&T disability compensation. My wife and I couldn't be happier. Thank you!"
"We are so grateful for the excellent assistance we received from Congressman Ryan's office," said David Friedman of New Paltz. "For two years we have been trying to resolve a problem with the IRS, and because of the intervention of his office, the issue has been properly resolved, and we actually received interest on an amount due from the IRS! It took something special to get this matter looked at and Congressman Ryan's office provided that!"
"My 2022 tax return was held up by the IRS for nine months," said Robert Warhola of Kingston. "I had plans for my refund. The case worker assured me this problem could be resolved in two weeks. As promised, I received my refund electronically. It is nice to see our government working efficiently."
"Thanks to Congressman Ryan's office, the IRS finally issued refunds this spring for 2 returns I filed back in 2021," said Stacy Quinn of Rhinebeck. " After a very frustrating year of follow up - including an appointment at the IRS regional office in Poughkeepsie, multiple IRS assurances that I would hear back but never did, and a request for help from a senator's office that was ignored - I was about to lose hope. Congressman Ryan's office responded immediately, however, provided frequent updates, and I received the missing refunds in 6 weeks."
The C.A.R.E.S. Van's casework team meets and listens to community members and answers and offers assistance with federal programs and benefits including, but not limited to:
Social Security, Veterans Affairs (VA), Medicare, Medicaid, federal student loans, federal grants for local governments, small businesses and organizations, and households, IRS taxes and tax returns, passports, immigration services, military records and awards, the Office of Personnel for federal workers, connecting with Veterans Service Organizations (VSOs) and the military community in the Hudson Valley, U.S. Service Academy nominations, and more!
In March of 2024, the C.A.R.E.S. Van completed its first district tour, visiting every one of the 82 cities, towns, and villages in NY-18 in under 10 months. During the first district tour, the Van reached over 1,500 constituents and logged 3,341 miles to bring assistance directly to Hudson Valley families where they are at. The Van has been critical in assisting Ryan's team in securing over $40 million in casework assistance for NY-18 constituents.
The C.A.R.E.S. Van has also been mobilized for specialized events, resource fairs, community events, and to deliver emergency response resources including, but not limited to:
* Bringing direct assistance from the Social Security Administration back to Ulster County following closure of the county's only Social Security Administration office.
* Partnering with dozens of community organizations, the Social Security Administration, the Center for Medicare, local governments from across the Hudson Valley for Senior Resource Fairs.
* Partnering with Veterans Service Organizations, local governments, and the Hudson Valley military community to deliver Veterans and Military Families Resource Fairs and for Congressman Ryan's Veterans Week of Action that made stops in every county in NY-18.
* Mobilizing a coalition of community partners, emergency response organizations, and local governments to bring direct relief to communities impacted by the catastrophic flooding events of July 2023.
* Partnering with the New York State Comptroller's Office of Unclaimed Funds to connect constituents with money owed to them by the State.
* Delivering direct assistance with federal agencies to community events including the Dutchess County Senior Picnics, National Night Out in partnership with local law enforcement agencies, community Trunk-or-Treat Halloween celebrations, community farmers' markets, Kingston's Mexican and Central American Independence Celebration, Warwick's Mental Health Awareness Celebration, the Orange County Veterans' Picnic, and more!
The schedule for the C.A.R.E.S. Van's August events is as follows, and updates will be provided via social media.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5:
11:00AM - 3:00PM
Cornwall Farmers Market
183 Main Street
Cornwall, NY 12518
FRIDAY, AUGUST 7:
5:00PM - 8:00PM
Town of Monroe National Night Out
199 Dunderberg Road
Central Valley, NY 10917
TUESDAY, AUGUST 11:
10:00AM - 2:00PM
Newburgh Healthy Market
130 Broadway
Newburgh, NY 12550
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12:
11:30AM - 1:00PM
Dutchess County Office for Aging Senior Picnic - Poughkeepsie
Stitzel Field
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601
SATURDAY, AUGUST 15:
9:00AM - 1:00PM
Lakeside Farmers Market
Winstanley Park
133 Windermere Avenue
Greenwood Lake, NY 10925
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19:
11:30AM - 1:00PM
Dutchess County Office for Aging Senior Picnic - LaGrange
Freedom Park
LaGrange, NY 12540
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22:
10:00AM - 3:00PM
New Paltz Farmers Market
196 Main St, New Paltz, NY 12561
MONDAY, AUGUST 31:
4:00PM - 7:00PM
Wappingers Farmers Market
20 Middletown Road
Wappingers Falls, NY 12590
***
Original text here: https://patryan.house.gov/media/press-releases/hudson-valley-families-face-health-care-cuts-and-rising-prices-congressman-7
Acrow Bridge International Business President Sullivan Testifies Before House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Intelligence released the following written testimony by Paul Sullivan, president of international business for Acrow Bridge, from a July 14, 2026, hearing entitled "U.S. Economic Security and Investment Abroad: Assessing Economic Security Zones":
* * *
Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit this written statement for the record. My name is Paul Sullivan, and I serve as President of International Business for Acrow Bridge, a U.S. firm specializing in the design, ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Intelligence released the following written testimony by Paul Sullivan, president of international business for Acrow Bridge, from a July 14, 2026, hearing entitled "U.S. Economic Security and Investment Abroad: Assessing Economic Security Zones": * * * Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit this written statement for the record. My name is Paul Sullivan, and I serve as President of International Business for Acrow Bridge, a U.S. firm specializing in the design,manufacture, and supply of modular steel bridges. Acrow appreciates the Committee's focus on Economic Security Zones and the broader question of whether the United States has the tools, authorities, and institutional capacity necessary to compete effectively in an era of strategic economic competition.
From Acrow's perspective, this hearing addresses an urgent and practical reality. Across emerging and developed markets alike, infrastructure is no longer simply a matter of engineering, procurement, and construction. It is increasingly a domain of economic statecraft.
Roads, bridges, ports, logistics corridors, energy systems, and industrial zones determine how goods move, how communities connect, how governments project capacity, and how countries integrate into regional and global supply chains. When these systems are financed, designed, built, and maintained by trusted partners, they strengthen economic resilience. When they are captured by opaque financing, non-transparent procurement, poor technical standards, or strategic dependency on authoritarian competitors, they can weaken sovereignty and expose countries to coercion.
Economic Security Zones can become an important part of a new American economic security architecture if they are designed not only around investment attraction, but also around trusted infrastructure, resilient supply chains, transparent procurement, diversified financing, and strong local capability. To succeed, however, they must be backed by the full range of U.S. foreign policy, commercial diplomacy, export finance, and development finance tools. American companies cannot be expected to compete alone against foreign firms that often arrive with the coordinated backing of their governments, export credit agencies, development finance institutions, state-owned banks, diplomatic networks, and political influence.
Acrow Bridge and the American Infrastructure Export Base
Acrow Bridge is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with its steel bridge manufacturing facility in Milton, Pennsylvania. We are a small to medium-sized business with approximately 350 employees. Our direct employment numbers, however, do not fully reflect our economic footprint. Our work supports thousands of American jobs across steel production, galvanizing, engineering, transportation, logistics, professional services, and other parts of the U.S. industrial base. When Acrow wins internationally, American workers, American suppliers, and American communities benefit.
Acrow is the world leader in the design, manufacture, and supply of modular steel bridges, having delivered our bridging solutions to more than 150 countries across the globe. We serve customers across a wide range of bridging applications, including permanent, temporary, emergency / disaster response, military / security, and mining / energy, among others. Our bridges are proprietary engineered systems, not commodities. They must meet demanding standards for safety, durability, load capacity, corrosion protection, rapid deployment, and lifecycle value.
Our deep experience across many international markets and regions gives us a clear view into how infrastructure competition is changing. What we have found in these markets is that the question is not whether a U.S. product is technically superior or offers better lifetime value. The question is whether the procurement environment, financing terms, local political dynamics, and foreign government support systems allow that value to be recognized. Too often, American firms face international competitors that are not competing solely on price, quality, or performance, but with the support of national strategies designed to capture markets, shape standards, and create long-term dependence.
The Infrastructure Dimension of Economic Security
Infrastructure should be viewed as a foundational element of economic security. A bridge may appear to be a discrete public works asset, but in many countries it is also a supply chain asset, a trade facilitation asset, a food security asset, a public safety asset, and a governance asset. A rural bridge can determine whether farmers reach markets, children reach schools, emergency services reach communities, and regional economies connect to national and international trade corridors. A logistics bridge near a port or industrial zone can determine whether manufacturing investment is commercially viable. A resilient bridge network can determine whether a country's supply chains continue to function after floods, storms, conflict, or other disruptions.
For this reason, Economic Security Zones should not be limited to fenced industrial parks or special regulatory regimes. They should be understood as ecosystems that require reliable connective infrastructure, trusted suppliers, transparent financing, enforceable standards, and long-term maintenance capacity. If the United States seeks to help partner countries reduce strategic dependencies, secure critical resources, and strengthen supply chains, then the infrastructure that connects those resources and supply chains must be part of the architecture from the beginning.
In our experience, partner governments often want American solutions. They associate U.S. companies with quality, transparency, accountability, safety, and long-term reliability. But many of these governments also face urgent infrastructure needs, fiscal constraints, political pressure to deliver quickly, and foreign competitors offering bundled packages that appear attractive at the point of sale. Without coordinated U.S. support, American companies can be displaced even when our solution better serves the long-term interests of the partner country and the United States.
The Competitive Challenge from the PRC and Other Foreign Competitors
The People's Republic of China has made infrastructure a central instrument of its global economic strategy. Chinese firms, including state-owned and state-supported enterprises, frequently compete abroad with access to subsidized finance, diplomatic reinforcement, bundled construction packages, and political support that are not available to most private U.S. companies. These offerings can be particularly difficult to counter in markets where procurement systems are still developing, where governments face immediate budget constraints, or where decision-making is vulnerable to non-transparent influence.
The challenge is not merely that Chinese firms are aggressive competitors. Competition is expected and healthy when it is fair. The concern is that competition is frequently distorted by practices that undermine transparency, technical integrity, and long-term value. These practices can include below-market financing, tied procurement, political pressure, corruption, insufficient attention to lifecycle costs, failure to meet technical specifications, weak quality control, limited local skills transfer, and disregard for intellectual property. When a procurement process is decided before a technical evaluation is complete, or when financing is tied to the selection of a particular foreign supplier, the result is not a level playing field.
This problem is not limited to the PRC. Acrow also encounters European competitors that benefit from highly coordinated national export strategies, export credit agency support, development finance support, and diplomatic advocacy. Many European firms are highly capable and compete legitimately. But in some markets, we also see non-U.S. competitors adopting tactics similar to those associated with Chinese firms, including aggressive political influence, procurement shaping, selective technical compliance, and efforts to weaken or appropriate proprietary designs and know-how. The broader trend is clear: many governments are using national tools to advance their companies' interests abroad. The United States must recognize that American firms increasingly compete not only against foreign companies, but against foreign systems.
The consequences extend beyond individual contract losses. When low-quality or nontransparent infrastructure is selected, partner countries may inherit assets that are unsafe, difficult to maintain, expensive to replace, or dependent on a single foreign supplier. When local officials become accustomed to opaque procurement, the institutional damage can persist for years. When U.S. firms lose repeated opportunities in strategic sectors, America loses market presence, industrial scale, technical influence, and the ability to shape standards. Economic Security Zones should be designed to reverse these patterns by creating procurement environments where trusted suppliers, transparent finance, and lifecycle value are rewarded.
The Value of U.S. Government Support
U.S. Government support is essential to helping American infrastructure firms compete internationally. Acrow uses U.S. Government resources in a range of capacities: identifying potential partners, understanding local market conditions, engaging relevant stakeholders, supporting meetings with public sector clients, encouraging transparent procurement, and ensuring that decision makers understand the strengths of U.S. technology, manufacturing, and financing solutions.
Commercial diplomacy is often the first and most important tool. U.S. Ambassadors, embassy economic and commercial teams, the Foreign Commercial Service, and interagency deal teams can open doors that a private company cannot open alone. They can help identify serious opportunities, convene credible local partners, elevate U.S. solutions with senior officials, and communicate the importance of fair and transparent procurement. They can also reinforce that a U.S. company is not merely selling a product; it is bringing American standards, accountability, safety, and long-term partnership.
Official advocacy is especially important in public sector procurements. In many markets, the presence of the U.S. Embassy can help ensure that procurement authorities evaluate bids based on published criteria, technical performance, lifecycle cost, and transparency rather than political pressure or informal influence. This does not mean asking the U.S. Government to pick winners. It means asking the U.S. Government to support a fair process in which American firms can compete on the merits.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States is also critical. EXIM is the official export credit agency of the United States and exists to support American jobs by facilitating exports when private financing is unavailable or insufficient, while helping level the playing field for U.S. goods and services in foreign markets. For infrastructure projects, the availability of competitive export finance can determine whether a U.S. solution is viable. Without it, American companies may be placed at a structural disadvantage against competitors backed by more aggressive foreign export credit systems.
The U.S. Development Finance Corporation is another essential instrument, particularly where infrastructure supports development outcomes, private investment, and strategic supply chain objectives. DFC can help mobilize capital in markets where commercial lenders are reluctant, where project preparation is complex, or where strategic infrastructure is necessary to unlock private sector growth. In the context of Economic Security Zones, DFC should be viewed not only as a development finance institution, but as a strategic economic security tool.
These tools are most effective when they are coordinated early. Too often, U.S. companies engage after a foreign competitor has already shaped the project, influenced the technical specification, aligned financing, and built political momentum. To compete effectively, the United States must be present at the project development stage, not only at the bid stage. Economic Security Zones offer an opportunity to organize that early engagement around priority corridors, sectors, and partner countries.
Policy Recommendations
First, the United States should make infrastructure a core component of Economic Security Zones. Supply chains do not exist in abstraction. They depend on roads, bridges, ports, power, water, digital connectivity, and logistics systems. If Economic Security Zones are intended to secure critical resources and reduce dependency on the PRC, then the connective infrastructure serving those zones must be planned, financed, and procured through trusted and transparent channels.
Second, Congress should ensure that U.S. agencies have the mandate and resources to engage earlier in the project lifecycle. This includes efficiently allocated support for feasibility work, project preparation, procurement design, technical specification development, and partner-country capacity building. If the United States waits until a tender is issued, it may already be too late. The rules of the competition are often set long before the bid date.
Third, the United States should strengthen interagency coordination among the Department of State, Department of Commerce, EXIM, DFC, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and other relevant agencies. American companies often face project opportunities that require diplomacy, financing, technical support, and development impact analysis at the same time. A coordinated approach would improve speed, consistency, and strategic focus.
Fourth, U.S. policy should place greater emphasis on lifecycle value and technical integrity in international infrastructure procurement. Economic Security Zones should promote standards that reward durability, safety, maintainability, interoperability, and local capacity development.
Lowest initial price should not be allowed to obscure higher long-term costs, poor performance, or strategic dependency.
Fifth, the United States should expand the use of official advocacy where American firms are competing for strategic infrastructure projects. Embassy engagement is one of the most powerful tools available to level the playing field. It signals that the United States cares about the integrity of the procurement and the quality of the outcome, and it can help counter political pressure from foreign competitors.
Sixth, EXIM and DFC should be equipped to move at the pace of strategic competition. U.S. agencies must preserve rigorous standards, but they must also be able to respond within commercial and political timelines. Foreign competitors often present financing and implementation packages rapidly. If U.S. tools are too slow, too fragmented, or too difficult for partner governments to navigate, American firms will lose opportunities even when our offerings are superior.
Finally, Economic Security Zones should include a deliberate role for small and medium-sized U.S. exporters. The companies that embody American innovation and manufacturing strength are not always the largest firms. Many are specialized companies with deep technical expertise, strong domestic supply chains, and proven international experience. Their participation should be a measure of success for any new economic security architecture.
Conclusion
The United States has extraordinary strengths: world-class companies, trusted technology, deep capital markets, unmatched diplomatic reach, and a reputation for quality and accountability. But these strengths must be organized for the world as it is, not the world as we might wish it to be.
Strategic competitors are using infrastructure, finance, procurement, and industrial policy to gain influence and lock in dependencies. The United States must respond with an integrated strategy that aligns American companies, American diplomacy, American finance, and American values.
Economic Security Zones can be a durable foundation for American economic statecraft if they are built around trusted infrastructure, transparent procurement, resilient supply chains, and practical tools that allow U.S. firms to compete. For companies like Acrow Bridge, this is not an abstract policy debate. It is the daily reality of competing internationally while supporting American manufacturing and American jobs at home.
I appreciate the Committee's attention to these issues and its commitment to ensuring that the United States has the instruments necessary to compete effectively. Acrow stands ready to work with Congress, the Administration, and partner governments to advance infrastructure solutions that strengthen supply chains, support development, reduce strategic dependencies, and expand opportunities for American workers and companies.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA17/20260714/119449/HHRG-119-FA17-Wstate-SullivanP-20260714.pdf
* * *
Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit this written statement for the record. My name is Paul Sullivan, and I serve as President of International Business for Acrow Bridge, a U.S. firm specializing in the design, ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Intelligence released the following written testimony by Paul Sullivan, president of international business for Acrow Bridge, from a July 14, 2026, hearing entitled "U.S. Economic Security and Investment Abroad: Assessing Economic Security Zones": * * * Chairman, Ranking Member, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to submit this written statement for the record. My name is Paul Sullivan, and I serve as President of International Business for Acrow Bridge, a U.S. firm specializing in the design,manufacture, and supply of modular steel bridges. Acrow appreciates the Committee's focus on Economic Security Zones and the broader question of whether the United States has the tools, authorities, and institutional capacity necessary to compete effectively in an era of strategic economic competition.
From Acrow's perspective, this hearing addresses an urgent and practical reality. Across emerging and developed markets alike, infrastructure is no longer simply a matter of engineering, procurement, and construction. It is increasingly a domain of economic statecraft.
Roads, bridges, ports, logistics corridors, energy systems, and industrial zones determine how goods move, how communities connect, how governments project capacity, and how countries integrate into regional and global supply chains. When these systems are financed, designed, built, and maintained by trusted partners, they strengthen economic resilience. When they are captured by opaque financing, non-transparent procurement, poor technical standards, or strategic dependency on authoritarian competitors, they can weaken sovereignty and expose countries to coercion.
Economic Security Zones can become an important part of a new American economic security architecture if they are designed not only around investment attraction, but also around trusted infrastructure, resilient supply chains, transparent procurement, diversified financing, and strong local capability. To succeed, however, they must be backed by the full range of U.S. foreign policy, commercial diplomacy, export finance, and development finance tools. American companies cannot be expected to compete alone against foreign firms that often arrive with the coordinated backing of their governments, export credit agencies, development finance institutions, state-owned banks, diplomatic networks, and political influence.
Acrow Bridge and the American Infrastructure Export Base
Acrow Bridge is headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, with its steel bridge manufacturing facility in Milton, Pennsylvania. We are a small to medium-sized business with approximately 350 employees. Our direct employment numbers, however, do not fully reflect our economic footprint. Our work supports thousands of American jobs across steel production, galvanizing, engineering, transportation, logistics, professional services, and other parts of the U.S. industrial base. When Acrow wins internationally, American workers, American suppliers, and American communities benefit.
Acrow is the world leader in the design, manufacture, and supply of modular steel bridges, having delivered our bridging solutions to more than 150 countries across the globe. We serve customers across a wide range of bridging applications, including permanent, temporary, emergency / disaster response, military / security, and mining / energy, among others. Our bridges are proprietary engineered systems, not commodities. They must meet demanding standards for safety, durability, load capacity, corrosion protection, rapid deployment, and lifecycle value.
Our deep experience across many international markets and regions gives us a clear view into how infrastructure competition is changing. What we have found in these markets is that the question is not whether a U.S. product is technically superior or offers better lifetime value. The question is whether the procurement environment, financing terms, local political dynamics, and foreign government support systems allow that value to be recognized. Too often, American firms face international competitors that are not competing solely on price, quality, or performance, but with the support of national strategies designed to capture markets, shape standards, and create long-term dependence.
The Infrastructure Dimension of Economic Security
Infrastructure should be viewed as a foundational element of economic security. A bridge may appear to be a discrete public works asset, but in many countries it is also a supply chain asset, a trade facilitation asset, a food security asset, a public safety asset, and a governance asset. A rural bridge can determine whether farmers reach markets, children reach schools, emergency services reach communities, and regional economies connect to national and international trade corridors. A logistics bridge near a port or industrial zone can determine whether manufacturing investment is commercially viable. A resilient bridge network can determine whether a country's supply chains continue to function after floods, storms, conflict, or other disruptions.
For this reason, Economic Security Zones should not be limited to fenced industrial parks or special regulatory regimes. They should be understood as ecosystems that require reliable connective infrastructure, trusted suppliers, transparent financing, enforceable standards, and long-term maintenance capacity. If the United States seeks to help partner countries reduce strategic dependencies, secure critical resources, and strengthen supply chains, then the infrastructure that connects those resources and supply chains must be part of the architecture from the beginning.
In our experience, partner governments often want American solutions. They associate U.S. companies with quality, transparency, accountability, safety, and long-term reliability. But many of these governments also face urgent infrastructure needs, fiscal constraints, political pressure to deliver quickly, and foreign competitors offering bundled packages that appear attractive at the point of sale. Without coordinated U.S. support, American companies can be displaced even when our solution better serves the long-term interests of the partner country and the United States.
The Competitive Challenge from the PRC and Other Foreign Competitors
The People's Republic of China has made infrastructure a central instrument of its global economic strategy. Chinese firms, including state-owned and state-supported enterprises, frequently compete abroad with access to subsidized finance, diplomatic reinforcement, bundled construction packages, and political support that are not available to most private U.S. companies. These offerings can be particularly difficult to counter in markets where procurement systems are still developing, where governments face immediate budget constraints, or where decision-making is vulnerable to non-transparent influence.
The challenge is not merely that Chinese firms are aggressive competitors. Competition is expected and healthy when it is fair. The concern is that competition is frequently distorted by practices that undermine transparency, technical integrity, and long-term value. These practices can include below-market financing, tied procurement, political pressure, corruption, insufficient attention to lifecycle costs, failure to meet technical specifications, weak quality control, limited local skills transfer, and disregard for intellectual property. When a procurement process is decided before a technical evaluation is complete, or when financing is tied to the selection of a particular foreign supplier, the result is not a level playing field.
This problem is not limited to the PRC. Acrow also encounters European competitors that benefit from highly coordinated national export strategies, export credit agency support, development finance support, and diplomatic advocacy. Many European firms are highly capable and compete legitimately. But in some markets, we also see non-U.S. competitors adopting tactics similar to those associated with Chinese firms, including aggressive political influence, procurement shaping, selective technical compliance, and efforts to weaken or appropriate proprietary designs and know-how. The broader trend is clear: many governments are using national tools to advance their companies' interests abroad. The United States must recognize that American firms increasingly compete not only against foreign companies, but against foreign systems.
The consequences extend beyond individual contract losses. When low-quality or nontransparent infrastructure is selected, partner countries may inherit assets that are unsafe, difficult to maintain, expensive to replace, or dependent on a single foreign supplier. When local officials become accustomed to opaque procurement, the institutional damage can persist for years. When U.S. firms lose repeated opportunities in strategic sectors, America loses market presence, industrial scale, technical influence, and the ability to shape standards. Economic Security Zones should be designed to reverse these patterns by creating procurement environments where trusted suppliers, transparent finance, and lifecycle value are rewarded.
The Value of U.S. Government Support
U.S. Government support is essential to helping American infrastructure firms compete internationally. Acrow uses U.S. Government resources in a range of capacities: identifying potential partners, understanding local market conditions, engaging relevant stakeholders, supporting meetings with public sector clients, encouraging transparent procurement, and ensuring that decision makers understand the strengths of U.S. technology, manufacturing, and financing solutions.
Commercial diplomacy is often the first and most important tool. U.S. Ambassadors, embassy economic and commercial teams, the Foreign Commercial Service, and interagency deal teams can open doors that a private company cannot open alone. They can help identify serious opportunities, convene credible local partners, elevate U.S. solutions with senior officials, and communicate the importance of fair and transparent procurement. They can also reinforce that a U.S. company is not merely selling a product; it is bringing American standards, accountability, safety, and long-term partnership.
Official advocacy is especially important in public sector procurements. In many markets, the presence of the U.S. Embassy can help ensure that procurement authorities evaluate bids based on published criteria, technical performance, lifecycle cost, and transparency rather than political pressure or informal influence. This does not mean asking the U.S. Government to pick winners. It means asking the U.S. Government to support a fair process in which American firms can compete on the merits.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States is also critical. EXIM is the official export credit agency of the United States and exists to support American jobs by facilitating exports when private financing is unavailable or insufficient, while helping level the playing field for U.S. goods and services in foreign markets. For infrastructure projects, the availability of competitive export finance can determine whether a U.S. solution is viable. Without it, American companies may be placed at a structural disadvantage against competitors backed by more aggressive foreign export credit systems.
The U.S. Development Finance Corporation is another essential instrument, particularly where infrastructure supports development outcomes, private investment, and strategic supply chain objectives. DFC can help mobilize capital in markets where commercial lenders are reluctant, where project preparation is complex, or where strategic infrastructure is necessary to unlock private sector growth. In the context of Economic Security Zones, DFC should be viewed not only as a development finance institution, but as a strategic economic security tool.
These tools are most effective when they are coordinated early. Too often, U.S. companies engage after a foreign competitor has already shaped the project, influenced the technical specification, aligned financing, and built political momentum. To compete effectively, the United States must be present at the project development stage, not only at the bid stage. Economic Security Zones offer an opportunity to organize that early engagement around priority corridors, sectors, and partner countries.
Policy Recommendations
First, the United States should make infrastructure a core component of Economic Security Zones. Supply chains do not exist in abstraction. They depend on roads, bridges, ports, power, water, digital connectivity, and logistics systems. If Economic Security Zones are intended to secure critical resources and reduce dependency on the PRC, then the connective infrastructure serving those zones must be planned, financed, and procured through trusted and transparent channels.
Second, Congress should ensure that U.S. agencies have the mandate and resources to engage earlier in the project lifecycle. This includes efficiently allocated support for feasibility work, project preparation, procurement design, technical specification development, and partner-country capacity building. If the United States waits until a tender is issued, it may already be too late. The rules of the competition are often set long before the bid date.
Third, the United States should strengthen interagency coordination among the Department of State, Department of Commerce, EXIM, DFC, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, and other relevant agencies. American companies often face project opportunities that require diplomacy, financing, technical support, and development impact analysis at the same time. A coordinated approach would improve speed, consistency, and strategic focus.
Fourth, U.S. policy should place greater emphasis on lifecycle value and technical integrity in international infrastructure procurement. Economic Security Zones should promote standards that reward durability, safety, maintainability, interoperability, and local capacity development.
Lowest initial price should not be allowed to obscure higher long-term costs, poor performance, or strategic dependency.
Fifth, the United States should expand the use of official advocacy where American firms are competing for strategic infrastructure projects. Embassy engagement is one of the most powerful tools available to level the playing field. It signals that the United States cares about the integrity of the procurement and the quality of the outcome, and it can help counter political pressure from foreign competitors.
Sixth, EXIM and DFC should be equipped to move at the pace of strategic competition. U.S. agencies must preserve rigorous standards, but they must also be able to respond within commercial and political timelines. Foreign competitors often present financing and implementation packages rapidly. If U.S. tools are too slow, too fragmented, or too difficult for partner governments to navigate, American firms will lose opportunities even when our offerings are superior.
Finally, Economic Security Zones should include a deliberate role for small and medium-sized U.S. exporters. The companies that embody American innovation and manufacturing strength are not always the largest firms. Many are specialized companies with deep technical expertise, strong domestic supply chains, and proven international experience. Their participation should be a measure of success for any new economic security architecture.
Conclusion
The United States has extraordinary strengths: world-class companies, trusted technology, deep capital markets, unmatched diplomatic reach, and a reputation for quality and accountability. But these strengths must be organized for the world as it is, not the world as we might wish it to be.
Strategic competitors are using infrastructure, finance, procurement, and industrial policy to gain influence and lock in dependencies. The United States must respond with an integrated strategy that aligns American companies, American diplomacy, American finance, and American values.
Economic Security Zones can be a durable foundation for American economic statecraft if they are built around trusted infrastructure, transparent procurement, resilient supply chains, and practical tools that allow U.S. firms to compete. For companies like Acrow Bridge, this is not an abstract policy debate. It is the daily reality of competing internationally while supporting American manufacturing and American jobs at home.
I appreciate the Committee's attention to these issues and its commitment to ensuring that the United States has the instruments necessary to compete effectively. Acrow stands ready to work with Congress, the Administration, and partner governments to advance infrastructure solutions that strengthen supply chains, support development, reduce strategic dependencies, and expand opportunities for American workers and companies.
* * *
Original text here: https://docs.house.gov/meetings/FA/FA17/20260714/119449/HHRG-119-FA17-Wstate-SullivanP-20260714.pdf
ACLU Senior Policy Analyst Stanley Testifies Before House Oversight & Government Reform Subcommittee
WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations released the following written testimony by Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst of the American Civil Liberties Union, from a July 15, 2026, hearing entitled "Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape":
* * *
Chairman Sessions, ranking member Mfume, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for your attention to the issue of digital identification and its potential role in combating fraud, and thank you for inviting me to testify today. I would like to leave you with two overarching ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations released the following written testimony by Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst of the American Civil Liberties Union, from a July 15, 2026, hearing entitled "Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape": * * * Chairman Sessions, ranking member Mfume, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for your attention to the issue of digital identification and its potential role in combating fraud, and thank you for inviting me to testify today. I would like to leave you with two overarchingpoints: a digital ID system would be a disaster for individual freedom if it is not done right, and the digital ID system that currently has the most momentum, mobile driver's licenses (mDLs) issued by the states, is not being done right. We must ensure that America does not become a "checkpoint" society where it is impossible to engage in everyday life without demands to prove your identity at every turn.
Digital IDs pose a real danger of turning into a true national identity card system of the kind that Americans have long opposed -- a "super ID" that is used to track and control us, traps Americans in a regimented, bureaucratic system, shifts power from ordinary people to companies and government, and basically functions as an electronic ankle bracelet monitor that we cannot escape. And the more a digital ID becomes a legal or practical requirement for everyday life, the more it will shut out people who are less likely to have a smartphone or the easy ability to navigate technology, like seniors.
Make no mistake, a digital ID will be just such an exclusionary "super ID" unless it is constructed with great care. Fortunately, a wide variety of better approaches to digital identity are being developed around the world. Interest in digital identity systems has fueled the emergence of an entire community of technologists, entrepreneurs, academics, and others who have been working on identification for many years -- including the problem of how to allow for online identification and authorization without creating a system for centralized tracking and control.1 That movement has created a fertile variety of proposed systems and standards.
* * *
1 For example, the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW), focused on user-controlled digital identity, has been held semiannually since 2005. Internet Identity Workshop, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Identity_Workshop.
* * *
That is also true when it comes to the field of privacy-enhancing cryptography, which is advancing quickly with a great deal of creative research that promises to allow us to "have our cake and eat it too" when it comes to privacy and security across a wide variety of applications.
For example, a privacy-enhancing technology called "zero knowledge proofs" allows people to prove they know certain things without revealing what those are -- a privacy-preserving technique that is still in the process of being applied in new areas.2
A digital ID such as an mDL could contain all the information that is now on our physical driver's licenses, including full legal name, address, weight, height, organ donor status, your unique driver's license number. Many of these fields, alone or in combination, can be used to uniquely identify you. Depending on how it is designed, a digital ID might also provide other electronic fingerprints that uniquely identify you.
If we are to build a digital identity system -- or preferably multiple decentralized competing systems -- it's vital that they make use of all this research and innovation. If a system can reduce fraud and provide other benefits without enabling a system of tracking and control, why would we build one that does enable such tracking and control?
I. A DIGITAL ID DONE BADLY WOULD CREATE FAR-REACHING HARMS
The creation of a digital ID infrastructure -- especially one that could be used over the internet -- would be a turning point that could have enormously harmful effects on our privacy, on the right to anonymous speech, on the accessibility of crucial life functions by many Americans, and more. If any such system is to be adopted, it must be done so with great care and deliberation. It must be designed to be under the control of users, privacy-protecting, open rather than proprietary, and non-exclusionary. It must be accompanied by both technological and legal protections against the negative side effects the creation of a digital ID is otherwise likely to have.
a. Digital IDs will lead to an explosion in demands that we prove our identity
Sometimes there is a legitimate need to identify people, but there are also a lot of other parties that don't really need to access your fully DMV-vetted, cryptographically locked-down proof of identity -- but will want to anyway for their own purposes.
A digital ID would make it much easier to present a cryptographically locked-down super-ID, but that also means it will become much easier for all manner of offline and online parties to request or demand that super-ID, since it would be a much smaller ask than the elaborate procedures often required today to prove identity remotely. By removing such friction, digital ID could create a checkpoint society where we get asked for ID at every turn. Want to enter a convenience store? Scan your ID. Want to enter a national park? Scan your ID. Want to browse a bookstore, buy groceries, or park your car? Scan your ID.
* * *
2 See Jay Stanley, Paths Toward an Acceptable Public Digital Currency, ACLU (Mar. 3, 2023), https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/cbdc_white_paper_-_0882_0.pdf (on encryption tools in digital payments); Jay Stanley & Daniel Kahn Gillmor, New Mobile Phone Service Shows We Can Have Both Privacy and Nice Things, ACLU (Feb. 15, 2023), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/new-mobilephone-service-shows-we-can-have-both-privacy-and-nice-things (on the use of privacy-enhancing technologies in a telephone network); Kaitlin Asrow & Spiro Samonas, Privacy Enhancing Technologies: Categories, Use Cases, and Considerations, Fed. Rsrv. Bank S.F. (June 1, 2021), https://www.frbsf.org/banking/wpcontent/uploads/sites/5/Privacy-Enhancing-Technologies_FINAL_V2_TOC-Update.pdf.
* * *
And that dynamic becomes even more intense once it's extended to the internet, where every web site and service starts demanding not just an email address, but your full, inescapable super ID. We already live in a digital advertising ecosystem that goes to great lengths to connect our online and offline activity to key identifiers. There is already far too much tracking of people online in general, and polls show Americans are very uncomfortable with it.3 But that tracking is far from perfect and has been the subject of growing pushback in recent years.4
If not properly
designed and executed, digital IDs may make such tracking inescapable. We may wake up one day and find that overnight, if we want to watch a YouTube video, or log on to social media, or look at a news site, we get a popup demanding that we "click here to send us your digital ID." Currently, people have a lot of flexibility to offer different log-in information for different accounts. Depending on how much we trust a web site, we can use different email addresses, different login handles, and choose whether to provide real full names. This flexibility empowers individuals. It allows us to choose when and to whom we wish to reveal our identity, and when we want to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. To provide your real identity is to enter a lifetime relationship with a company or web site -- they will always be able to find you. For many reasons, people don't always want that.
A powerful Big Tech motivation for demanding super IDs is likely to be marketing. As some other techniques for tracking people online, such as cookies, lose their utility, companies are hungry for alternate ways of identifying people so they can collect reliable personal data for advertising, have a reliable unique identifier so they can track us across different sites, and increase the value of the data they collect.5
In addition to marketing, this data can also enable companies to engage in surveillance pricing, where people are charged different prices based on data collected about them and what that suggests about the intensity of their need, what they are willing or able to pay, or just who they are.6 Other motivations are likely to be cybersecurity ("We need to know who is on our site in case they turn out to be a bad actor"), terms-of-service enforcement ("We need to make sure you aren't someone we've previously banned"), a desire to screen out AI bots, and age verification.
* * *
3 Michelle Cao, Nearly Three-Fourths of Online Households Continue to Have Digital Privacy and Security Concerns, Nat'l Telecomms. & Info. Admin. (Dec. 13, 2021), https://www.ntia.gov/blog/2021/nearly-three-fourthsonline-households-continue-have-digital-privacy-and-security-concerns; Colleen McClain et al., How Americans View Data Privacy, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Oct. 18, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/10/18/howamericans-view-data-privacy/.
4 Jane Wakefield, Facebook v Apple: The Ad Tracking Row Heats Up, BBC (Apr. 25, 2021), https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56831241; Anthony Chavez, The Next Step Toward Phasing Out ThirdParty Cookies in Chrome, Google (Dec. 14, 2023), https://blog.google/products-andplatforms/products/chrome/privacy-sandbox-tracking-protection/.
5 The loss of utility comes from several sources, including the "death of tracking cookies," the influence of EU privacy law, and changes to the operating system on Apple's phones, which limit advertisers from accessing an iPhone user identifier. Google has also moved toward limiting the tracking technology in its Chrome browser and in the Android phone operating system. See Owen Ray, Tracking Cookies are Dead: What Marketers Can Do About It, Invoca Blog (Oct 2. 2023), https://www.invoca.com/blog/tracking-cookies-are-dead-what-marketers-can-do-aboutit; Brian X. Chen, To Be Tracked or Not? Apple Is Now Giving Us the Choice, N.Y. Times (Sept. 29, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/technology/personaltech/apple-app-tracking-transparency.html; Brian X. Chen & Daisuke Wakabayashi, You're Still Being Tracked on the Internet, Just in a Different Way, N.Y. Times (Apr. 6, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/technology/online-tracking-privacy.html.
* * *
These kinds of dynamics could lead us toward a "checkpoint society" where an increasingly dense net of identity checkpoints and access controls is woven throughout American life, online and off. It could become impossible to do anything without proving your identity. That would mean a significant loss not only of privacy and control, but also an erosion of Americans' ability to engage in anonymous speech, learning, and association. Anonymous speech has been an important American tradition since the nation's founding -- the Federalist Papers and many prorevolutionary pamphlets were written anonymously, for example -- and it brings many benefits, including the ability to speak truth to power, to freely associate and exchange ideas, and to seek information about and support for conditions and experiences that many find embarrassing to disclose.7
Verification of a person's real identity is currently difficult, cumbersome, and expensive, and as a result is not usually asked of customers unless absolutely necessary. Once we create a way of proving our identity that is quick and easy, demands will proliferate.
b. Digital IDs enable centralized tracking of presentations
Another danger posed by a digital ID is that, depending on how an ID system is architected, it could allow people's presentations of their ID to be tracked. When I present my plastic driver's license at a wine store to prove I'm over 21, generally, no record of that interaction is created, and it remains between me and the clerk.8 Digital technology, however, magnifies the potential for those presentations to be recorded, reported, and tracked.
In digital identity systems that permit such tracking, information could be gathered by the issuer (in the case of digital driver's licenses, that would be motor vehicle departments or the contractors that they hire) about every bar, club, casino, office lobby, bank, pharmacy, doctor's office, sporting arena, concert venue, and airport that an ID holder visits; every convenience store beer purchase, equipment rental, or hotel check-in; every application for social services; and every other circumstance in which they may be asked to show an ID. And again, if a digital identity system starts being used online, that list could grow exponentially to cover the web sites and online services a person uses. And digital IDs would also make it trivial for those stores, bars, banks, and other establishments to gather and share data to tie every transaction to your real identity, and then monetize that data, unless Congress provides meaningful safeguards.
* * *
6 Jay Stanley, Digital Driver's Licenses Could Make "Surveillance Pricing" Much Easier for Companies, ACLU (Sept. 15, 2025), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/surveillance-pricing-and-ids.
7 McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n, 514 U.S. 334 (1995) (anonymous election- and issue-related leaflets); Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 (1960) (anonymous handbills).
8 See Heather Brown, What Do Driver's License Scanners Do With Our Information?, CBS News (Mar. 3, 2022), https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/drivers-license-scanners; Dana Fowle, Retailers Scanning Drivers Licenses Raises Privacy Issues, Fox 5 Atlanta (Jan. 21, 2022), https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/retailersscanning-drivers-licenses-raises-privacy-issues.
* * *
Some digital ID systems may also provide for IDs that electronically ping their issuers at regular intervals, or allow issuers to arbitrarily reach into users' wallets to alter or revoke their IDs. This sets the stage for abuses (such as taking away IDs from the authorities' political opponents or revoking IDs without due process) and threatens to invade identity holders' privacy by providing the issuer with information about the holder such as their IP address, which can reveal location and other information.9
c. Further disadvantaging those without technology
If digital IDs become mandatory, either legally or practically, that would have significant implications for equity and the "digital divide" by disadvantaging those who don't have a smartphone or other necessary devices. That is a surprisingly large group of people, including many from our most vulnerable communities. Studies have found that about one in ten people in the US do not own a smartphone, including over one-fifth of people over age 65.10 People with disabilities are less likely to own a smartphone, and many who are unhoused also lack access.11 Some may lack the resources to afford a smartphone and mobile data access, while others may lack the technological literacy to use them; in 2018 a study found that about 40% of seniors weren't able to install a mobile app on a smartphone.12 While the number unable to do so has probably grown since that study was published, there almost certainly is a portion of the population who remains unable to do so.
To worsen inequality, digital IDs need not become legally mandated, just practically required.
There's no law that says every American has to get a credit card or driver's license, but it's hard to participate fully in society without one, and those who lack them suffer significant disadvantages in today's world. If digital credentials also become practically required, the negative effects would be even more intense, even though there is also no law that says every person has to own a smartphone.
d. Capture by private companies
The provision of driver's licenses and other government identity documents is a public act. The showing of identity or attribute authentication for government services or where required by law is not something people will have a choice over. Therefore, any digital identity system should be considered essential public infrastructure, and people should not be required to do business with any one company or small number of companies in order to participate in this system. Yet there is a danger that one company or a small number of companies (such as the dominant wallet providers Apple and Google) come to play gatekeeper roles in a digital identity system. That may allow them to abuse their position to cement their market power, engage in blocking and censorship of ID uses, the tracking of individuals, or the imposition of fees or other rent-seeking behavior within the identity ecosystem. Or they may simply deny people the ability to do business with other companies in a healthy free market.
* * *
9 Jay Stanley, How to Give the Government New Power to "Un-Person" Someone, in Three Easy Steps, ACLU (Jan. 5, 2026), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/un-personing-with-digital-id.
10 See Mobile Fact Sheet, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Nov. 20, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/.
11 See Andrew Perrin & Sara Atske, Americans With Disabilities Less Likely Than Those Without to Own Some Digital Devices, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Sept. 10, 2021), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/10/americanswith-disabilities-less-likely-than-those-without-to-own-some-digital-devices/.
12 Chui Yin Wong et al., Usability and Design Issues of Smartphone User Interface and Mobile Apps for Older Adults, 886 Commc'ns in Comput. & Info. Sci. (2018), https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-16289_9.
* * *
II. IF A DIGITAL ID SYSTEM IS CREATED, IT MUST BE DONE RIGHT
If we are to create a digital identity system in the United States, we need to make sure we build it in such a way that it does not become an infrastructure that allows us to be tracked and regimented in new ways. If digital IDs are not to become the functional equivalent of a national ID ankle monitor everyone is forced to wear, they need to have certain technological features and certain legal protections. We urge Congress to require and ensure that any digital ID systems have these features.13
a. Technological safeguards
The technological protections that should be incorporated into a digital ID include (but are not limited to):
1. No tracking. A system must not allow ID issuers visibility into where and when an ID is presented to a verifier.
2. Holder control. An ID holder -- the individual to whom the ID belongs -- should have technological control over what data they reveal to a verifier, allowing them to reveal some fields of data and not others, and to reveal characteristics such as "over age 21" without revealing details such as the holder's date of birth, or "resident of county" without revealing their address. Such "selective disclosure" is one area where a digital ID can have advantages for privacy over a physical ID, and that advantage should be fully made use of.
3. Unlinkable presentations. When the holder presents their digital credentials, the verifier should be unable to link that presentation with others from the same holder. For example, the verifier should not be able to tell that the "over 21" person buying a case of beer today is the same person who bought a bottle of wine last week. This limits the ability of any verifier (or their vendors) to assemble a map of data about who does what where.
4. Verifier transparency. An ID holder should have transparency into who is requesting identifying or authenticating information, their authority for making that request, what the specific circumstances and purpose of the request are, what information is and has been transmitted, and if that transmission involves third parties.
5. Open, not proprietary. If the United States is to adopt a digital ID, it's also vital that that ID be open and free of proprietary strings. There must be no one corporation, or small handful of corporations, that Americans are de facto required to deal with in order to participate in a digital identity system. The system must be clearly documented and open enough that it is possible for any party with the relevant skills to build an interoperable digital wallet that any legitimate ID holder can use or an interoperable verifier tool that any legitimate verifier can use. No system that our society depends upon should be built on proprietary specifications, proprietary hardware, or patent-encumbered technology.
* * *
13 For more detail on the ACLU's recommended safeguards on digital IDs, see ACLU Digital ID State Legislative Recommendations, ACLU (Oct. 2024), https://www.aclu.org/publications/aclu-digital-id-state-legislativerecommendations.
* * *
b. Legal safeguards
In addition to technical protections built into digital IDs, Congress should consider establishing legal safeguards to protect individuals from surveillance and governmental incursions: 1. An empowering option, not an imprisoning requirement. It is vital that people be provided with multiple options when it comes to identifying themselves. Providing a means for digital identification or authentication can be empowering if it gives people a new choice in how they do so. For people with certain disabilities, it can be critically important to have remote options (to verify their ID from their home, for example, rather than in a Post Office). At the same time, remote processes can be inaccessible for the many individuals who lack access to smartphones with cameras, reliable internet service, or who simply are less familiar with how to use complex technology. People should never be locked out of critical services because of a lack of technology to engage in identity verification processes.
The use of digital IDs should never become mandatory as either a legal or practical matter. We believe that people should have a right to obtain and use paper, plastic, or other physical identity documents instead of or in addition to a digital ID. Digital IDs should be accompanied by policies that bar those engaging in identification from refusing to accept physical IDs on a reasonably equal basis. Government verifiers should also be required to provide a meaningful in-person option. Digital identification must be an empowering option for people rather than a disempowering requirement. Otherwise, a digital ID system will inevitably deny significant numbers of vulnerable people access to benefits to which they are legally entitled.
2. Protections against excessive identity demands. As discussed above, a digital identity system, by making it very easy to share our ID, is likely to lead to a significant expansion in the times and places where our IDs are demanded. As a result, no digital identity system should be rolled out without properly enforced legal limits on when those engaged in commerce or other regulated activities may demand that people prove their identity with these super IDs.
3. Protections against data collection by verifiers and wallet providers. Verifiers in any system of digital IDs should have concrete legal obligations to minimize collection and retention of data, with appropriate consequences for violations. This should include a duty of loyalty, such as has already been adopted by at least one state.14 Wallet providers must also be barred from surveilling their users.
4. Protection of an open wallet ecosystem. To prevent the insertion of a private for-profit company in an identity infrastructure, policymakers must create the regulatory conditions for a flourishing open wallet marketplace that allows anyone, including open-source providers, to create a wallet that can host a digital identity document, provided they meet general security and other standards. The provisioning process by which data from issuers is loaded onto people's devices should be standardized so that anyone meeting the standards can write a wallet app and holders will have choices in which wallet they use.
* * *
14 Jay Stanley, Utah Passes Nation's Strongest Digital Identity Bill, ACLU (Mar. 30, 2026), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/utah-digital-id-law.
* * *
III. DIGITAL DRIVER'S LICENSES ARE THE MOST LIKELY FORM OF DIGITAL ID TO BECOME WIDESPREAD
A broad variety of proposals for digital identification systems have been created, and it would be preferable if we could create a future where there are multiple, independent digital ID systems giving individuals choices. But digital versions of the driver's licenses (or non-driver IDs issued by state motor vehicle agencies) are the avenue by which most people are likely to end up initially using or being forced to use a digital identity.
a. Driver's licenses are already the most common form of identification used by Americans The nation's motor vehicle departments have long had the power to put an identity document in most Americans' pockets. While it is important to stress that a significant number of people in the US do not have government IDs, 85% of Americans 14 and older have some form of driver's license according to the Federal Highway Administration, with some additional number having non-driver's IDs.15 That is why DMV-issued identification is the most commonly used form of government ID. That makes driver's licenses a natural foundation for a digital ID; the DMVs have the administrative capacity to verify and produce IDs, and many Americans are already accustomed to getting their IDs there -- and have to do so anyway in order to drive. The deeply problematic but now decades-old Real ID Act further recognized and entrenched the DMVs as the de facto source of identification for most Americans.
b. Significant problems with current ID-proofing techniques will drive adoption of digital driver's licenses
Many are looking to digital driver's licenses because existing forms of digital identity verification are deeply problematic. Perhaps even more than a digital driver's license, these systems require the ability to have and use technology -- a computer, a camera, a good internet connection, and the technological literacy to use all of them according to the verification services' instructions. This can pose significant barriers to individuals legitimately claiming government benefits.
The collection and use of detailed surveillance information on individuals that is collected in often unethical ways (such as through phone apps that secretly report location data) without their meaningful knowledge or consent is also deeply problematic. Biometric and behavioral analytics tools used for remote fraud monitoring may improperly capture and retain user information, including sensitive health information. For example, mouse movements have been used to identify cognitive impairments and screen individuals for Parkinson's disease.16
Companies that assemble information about individuals from diverse sources will also face a constant incentive to monetize that data for purposes unrelated to identify verification. In addition, when Congress eventually enacts the kind of strong overarching privacy legislation that Americans want, much of the surveillance data now being used for identity verification will dry up.
* * *
15 Highway Statistics 2024, U.S. Dep't of Transp. Fed. Highway Admin. (Feb. 2026), https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2024/dl20.cfm.
16 Kryzstof Gajos et al., Computer Mouse Use Captures Ataxia and Parkinsonism, Enabling Accurate Measurement and Detection, Wiley InterScience (Jul. 8, 2019), https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mds.27915.
* * *
Layered on top of that data collection is the problematic use of AI algorithms for analyzing the data to make decisions. As the ACLU explained in comments to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) on its digital identity guidelines, risk-scoring tools can introduce errors and biases into fraud detection, often in ways that are difficult for victims or regulators to understand.17 The opacity of AI, in addition to the opacity of private, for-profit companies, makes it hard for victims of false-positives to receive due process.
c. There is already significant interest and activity in the states on digital driver's licenses An estimated 20 states have already implemented mobile driver's licenses, with others in various stages of preparation or consideration of doing so.18
d. Even the federal government is also moving to rely on state driver's licenses
In addition, the federal government's Login.gov site is reportedly preparing to accept digital driver's licenses as part of its identity-verification procedures. That will place driver's licenses squarely in the middle of not just state and private-sector identity verification, but federal government verification as well.19
IV. THE MOBILE DRIVER'S LICENSES THAT MANY STATES ARE ADOPTING SHOULD NOT BECOME THE STANDARD
The mDLs that many states are starting to adopt do not have the design qualities or legal protections needed to protect people's rights. mDLs are based on a standard created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) behind closed doors by a secretive international committee that, so far as we can tell, included representatives of US security agencies like DHS, tech giants, and authoritarian governments. The text of the standard is not available for democratic debate and discussion because it is secret, and it can only be obtained by paying the ISO. If you do pay, you cannot share it or post it online because it is copyrighted.
This is in no way how public policy should be made. The ISO standard is not a legitimate basis on which to move forward and risks creating a national identity system of the kind that Americans have long opposed, especially when embraced without the accompanying legal protections that it requires. Yet the TSA is embracing it, NIST is working with it, and state legislatures are being pushed to adopt it.
* * *
17 Elec. Priv. Info. Ctr. & ACLU, Comment to NIST on Digital Identity Guidelines: Enrollment and Identity Proofing, Initial Public Draft (Apr. 14, 2023), available at https://epic.org/documents/epic-and-aclu-comments-onnists-2023-digital-identity-draft-guidelines/.
18 Implementation Tracker Map, mDL Connection, https://www.mdlconnection.com/implementation-tracker-map/
19 Miranda Nazzaro, Login.gov Looks to Accept Mobile Driver's Licenses in 'Near Future', FedScoop (July 14, 2025), https://fedscoop.com/login-gov-mobile-drivers-license-user-friendly-fraud/; Natalie Alms, Government is Making Moves on Mobile Drivers Licenses, GSA Administrator Says, NextGov (July 14, 2025) https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/07/government-making-moves-mobile-drivers-licenses-gsaadministrator-says/406704/.
* * *
Reflecting the lack of public and public-interest stakeholder input, the ISO standard contains provisions for the centralized tracking of presentations (although due to the ISO's opaqueness it's unclear whether they have been removed from the latest official version under pressure from activists and the digital identity community).20 It also lacks provisions ensuring selective disclosure is implemented to ensure maximal individual empowerment, or requiring unlinkable presentations, verifier transparency, or an open wallet ecosystem free of proprietary standards or patent-encumbered technology. It also lacks protections against abusive revocations.
This form of digital ID is being adopted by states with very little federal input. It is being pushed by tech companies, banks, and the DMVs and their private association in Washington, the American Association for Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). Although the TSA has the power under the Real ID Modernization Act to influence the shape of this ID, it has so far not been using that power to ensure it doesn't become a national ID system -- and to the contrary has incorporated the ISO standard by reference into its regulations, even though those standards are not viewable by the public or by stakeholders unable or unwilling to pay to see them.21 Much of the policymaking around mDLs is being done by an opaque and democratically unaccountable private organization, AAMVA, the policies of which lack the force of law and can be changed at any time without public input.
Alternatives to adoption of the illegitimate ISO standard exist. For example, an alternate standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) called Verifiable Credentials (VCs) is a superior basis on which to build a digital identity system. And the state of Utah has spurned the mDL model and is building an alternative called State-Endorsed Digital Identity (SEDI), which, while not perfect, includes a great number of the protections that a digital identity system should have and may be gaining support in other states.22
V. COMBATING GOVERNMENT FRAUD IS NOT A SUFFICIENT JUSTIFICATION FOR CREATING A NATIONAL DIGITAL IDENTITY SYSTEM THAT WILL TAKE AWAY AMERICANS' FREEDOMS
Fraud against the government, including through improper payments, has long been a problem, and efforts to reduce it should remain unceasing in any well-governed nation. That said, a certain amount of fraud or theft is always a cost of doing business for any government or private sector program or enterprise.
* * *
20 See, e.g., No Phone Home, https://nophonehome.com/.
21 ACLU, Ctr. for Democracy & Tech., Elec. Priv. Info. Ctr., & Elec. Frontier Found., Comments to TSA on Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Waiver for Mobile Driver's Licenses (Oct. 16, 2023), available at https://www.aclu.org/documents/comments-to-the-transportation-security-administration; Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Waiver for Mobile Driver's Licenses, 89 Fed. Reg. 85340 (Oct. 25, 2024), https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/202423881.pdf.
22 Jay Stanley, Utah Passes Nation's Strongest Digital Identity Bill, ACLU (Mar. 30, 2026), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/utah-digital-id-law.
* * *
Perspective is also important. In its April 2026 report "Payment Integrity," the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that improper payments amounted to about $186 billion in 2025.23 That is by any measure a significant amount of money. At the same time, it does not justify imposing upon the American people a national identity system that will increase tracking and control of ordinary people, diminish online freedom, including the freedom to engage in anonymous speech, and exclude a significant number of people from accessing important benefits and services.
Furthermore:
* The GAO found that 82% of the improper payments it identified are not payments to unqualified parties, but overpayments to parties who were legitimately eligible for some amount. Overpayments is not a problem that better identity proofing can solve.
* Some proportion of the $186 billion figure is a result of better reporting. The GAO says that the $24 billion increase from 2024 "is largely attributable" to better reporting. In addition, the GAO notes that Congress in 2019 required agencies to begin estimating and reporting on improper payments in programs they administer. We should expect that the reported numbers after that year would be higher than prior years even given an unchanging amount of improper payments.
* Yet, despite that more rigorous reporting, the GAO's data, when adjusted for inflation, shows the amount of overpayments in 2025 is roughly on par with the annual overpayments from the previous 15 years, with the exception of a Covid-era spike that appears to have ended. That suggests that we are not seeing a sudden new plague of improper payments fraud emerging.
Overall, the improper payments problem does not justify imposition of a digital identity system that leads to a checkpoint society and significantly erodes the freedom of Americans, especially when the most significant problem -- overpayments -- would not be solved by a digital ID system.
* * *
23 Payment Integrity: Agencies' Estimated Improper Payments Increased to $186 Billion in Fiscal Year 2025, U.S. Gov't Accountability Off. (Apr. 27, 2026), https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-108694.pdf.
* * *
Original text here: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Stanley-Written-Testimony.pdf
* * *
Chairman Sessions, ranking member Mfume, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for your attention to the issue of digital identification and its potential role in combating fraud, and thank you for inviting me to testify today. I would like to leave you with two overarching ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, July 27 -- The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Government Operations released the following written testimony by Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst of the American Civil Liberties Union, from a July 15, 2026, hearing entitled "Emerging Fraud Threats and the Evolving Fraud Landscape": * * * Chairman Sessions, ranking member Mfume, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for your attention to the issue of digital identification and its potential role in combating fraud, and thank you for inviting me to testify today. I would like to leave you with two overarchingpoints: a digital ID system would be a disaster for individual freedom if it is not done right, and the digital ID system that currently has the most momentum, mobile driver's licenses (mDLs) issued by the states, is not being done right. We must ensure that America does not become a "checkpoint" society where it is impossible to engage in everyday life without demands to prove your identity at every turn.
Digital IDs pose a real danger of turning into a true national identity card system of the kind that Americans have long opposed -- a "super ID" that is used to track and control us, traps Americans in a regimented, bureaucratic system, shifts power from ordinary people to companies and government, and basically functions as an electronic ankle bracelet monitor that we cannot escape. And the more a digital ID becomes a legal or practical requirement for everyday life, the more it will shut out people who are less likely to have a smartphone or the easy ability to navigate technology, like seniors.
Make no mistake, a digital ID will be just such an exclusionary "super ID" unless it is constructed with great care. Fortunately, a wide variety of better approaches to digital identity are being developed around the world. Interest in digital identity systems has fueled the emergence of an entire community of technologists, entrepreneurs, academics, and others who have been working on identification for many years -- including the problem of how to allow for online identification and authorization without creating a system for centralized tracking and control.1 That movement has created a fertile variety of proposed systems and standards.
* * *
1 For example, the Internet Identity Workshop (IIW), focused on user-controlled digital identity, has been held semiannually since 2005. Internet Identity Workshop, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Identity_Workshop.
* * *
That is also true when it comes to the field of privacy-enhancing cryptography, which is advancing quickly with a great deal of creative research that promises to allow us to "have our cake and eat it too" when it comes to privacy and security across a wide variety of applications.
For example, a privacy-enhancing technology called "zero knowledge proofs" allows people to prove they know certain things without revealing what those are -- a privacy-preserving technique that is still in the process of being applied in new areas.2
A digital ID such as an mDL could contain all the information that is now on our physical driver's licenses, including full legal name, address, weight, height, organ donor status, your unique driver's license number. Many of these fields, alone or in combination, can be used to uniquely identify you. Depending on how it is designed, a digital ID might also provide other electronic fingerprints that uniquely identify you.
If we are to build a digital identity system -- or preferably multiple decentralized competing systems -- it's vital that they make use of all this research and innovation. If a system can reduce fraud and provide other benefits without enabling a system of tracking and control, why would we build one that does enable such tracking and control?
I. A DIGITAL ID DONE BADLY WOULD CREATE FAR-REACHING HARMS
The creation of a digital ID infrastructure -- especially one that could be used over the internet -- would be a turning point that could have enormously harmful effects on our privacy, on the right to anonymous speech, on the accessibility of crucial life functions by many Americans, and more. If any such system is to be adopted, it must be done so with great care and deliberation. It must be designed to be under the control of users, privacy-protecting, open rather than proprietary, and non-exclusionary. It must be accompanied by both technological and legal protections against the negative side effects the creation of a digital ID is otherwise likely to have.
a. Digital IDs will lead to an explosion in demands that we prove our identity
Sometimes there is a legitimate need to identify people, but there are also a lot of other parties that don't really need to access your fully DMV-vetted, cryptographically locked-down proof of identity -- but will want to anyway for their own purposes.
A digital ID would make it much easier to present a cryptographically locked-down super-ID, but that also means it will become much easier for all manner of offline and online parties to request or demand that super-ID, since it would be a much smaller ask than the elaborate procedures often required today to prove identity remotely. By removing such friction, digital ID could create a checkpoint society where we get asked for ID at every turn. Want to enter a convenience store? Scan your ID. Want to enter a national park? Scan your ID. Want to browse a bookstore, buy groceries, or park your car? Scan your ID.
* * *
2 See Jay Stanley, Paths Toward an Acceptable Public Digital Currency, ACLU (Mar. 3, 2023), https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/cbdc_white_paper_-_0882_0.pdf (on encryption tools in digital payments); Jay Stanley & Daniel Kahn Gillmor, New Mobile Phone Service Shows We Can Have Both Privacy and Nice Things, ACLU (Feb. 15, 2023), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/new-mobilephone-service-shows-we-can-have-both-privacy-and-nice-things (on the use of privacy-enhancing technologies in a telephone network); Kaitlin Asrow & Spiro Samonas, Privacy Enhancing Technologies: Categories, Use Cases, and Considerations, Fed. Rsrv. Bank S.F. (June 1, 2021), https://www.frbsf.org/banking/wpcontent/uploads/sites/5/Privacy-Enhancing-Technologies_FINAL_V2_TOC-Update.pdf.
* * *
And that dynamic becomes even more intense once it's extended to the internet, where every web site and service starts demanding not just an email address, but your full, inescapable super ID. We already live in a digital advertising ecosystem that goes to great lengths to connect our online and offline activity to key identifiers. There is already far too much tracking of people online in general, and polls show Americans are very uncomfortable with it.3 But that tracking is far from perfect and has been the subject of growing pushback in recent years.4
If not properly
designed and executed, digital IDs may make such tracking inescapable. We may wake up one day and find that overnight, if we want to watch a YouTube video, or log on to social media, or look at a news site, we get a popup demanding that we "click here to send us your digital ID." Currently, people have a lot of flexibility to offer different log-in information for different accounts. Depending on how much we trust a web site, we can use different email addresses, different login handles, and choose whether to provide real full names. This flexibility empowers individuals. It allows us to choose when and to whom we wish to reveal our identity, and when we want to remain anonymous or pseudonymous. To provide your real identity is to enter a lifetime relationship with a company or web site -- they will always be able to find you. For many reasons, people don't always want that.
A powerful Big Tech motivation for demanding super IDs is likely to be marketing. As some other techniques for tracking people online, such as cookies, lose their utility, companies are hungry for alternate ways of identifying people so they can collect reliable personal data for advertising, have a reliable unique identifier so they can track us across different sites, and increase the value of the data they collect.5
In addition to marketing, this data can also enable companies to engage in surveillance pricing, where people are charged different prices based on data collected about them and what that suggests about the intensity of their need, what they are willing or able to pay, or just who they are.6 Other motivations are likely to be cybersecurity ("We need to know who is on our site in case they turn out to be a bad actor"), terms-of-service enforcement ("We need to make sure you aren't someone we've previously banned"), a desire to screen out AI bots, and age verification.
* * *
3 Michelle Cao, Nearly Three-Fourths of Online Households Continue to Have Digital Privacy and Security Concerns, Nat'l Telecomms. & Info. Admin. (Dec. 13, 2021), https://www.ntia.gov/blog/2021/nearly-three-fourthsonline-households-continue-have-digital-privacy-and-security-concerns; Colleen McClain et al., How Americans View Data Privacy, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Oct. 18, 2023), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/10/18/howamericans-view-data-privacy/.
4 Jane Wakefield, Facebook v Apple: The Ad Tracking Row Heats Up, BBC (Apr. 25, 2021), https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56831241; Anthony Chavez, The Next Step Toward Phasing Out ThirdParty Cookies in Chrome, Google (Dec. 14, 2023), https://blog.google/products-andplatforms/products/chrome/privacy-sandbox-tracking-protection/.
5 The loss of utility comes from several sources, including the "death of tracking cookies," the influence of EU privacy law, and changes to the operating system on Apple's phones, which limit advertisers from accessing an iPhone user identifier. Google has also moved toward limiting the tracking technology in its Chrome browser and in the Android phone operating system. See Owen Ray, Tracking Cookies are Dead: What Marketers Can Do About It, Invoca Blog (Oct 2. 2023), https://www.invoca.com/blog/tracking-cookies-are-dead-what-marketers-can-do-aboutit; Brian X. Chen, To Be Tracked or Not? Apple Is Now Giving Us the Choice, N.Y. Times (Sept. 29, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/26/technology/personaltech/apple-app-tracking-transparency.html; Brian X. Chen & Daisuke Wakabayashi, You're Still Being Tracked on the Internet, Just in a Different Way, N.Y. Times (Apr. 6, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/06/technology/online-tracking-privacy.html.
* * *
These kinds of dynamics could lead us toward a "checkpoint society" where an increasingly dense net of identity checkpoints and access controls is woven throughout American life, online and off. It could become impossible to do anything without proving your identity. That would mean a significant loss not only of privacy and control, but also an erosion of Americans' ability to engage in anonymous speech, learning, and association. Anonymous speech has been an important American tradition since the nation's founding -- the Federalist Papers and many prorevolutionary pamphlets were written anonymously, for example -- and it brings many benefits, including the ability to speak truth to power, to freely associate and exchange ideas, and to seek information about and support for conditions and experiences that many find embarrassing to disclose.7
Verification of a person's real identity is currently difficult, cumbersome, and expensive, and as a result is not usually asked of customers unless absolutely necessary. Once we create a way of proving our identity that is quick and easy, demands will proliferate.
b. Digital IDs enable centralized tracking of presentations
Another danger posed by a digital ID is that, depending on how an ID system is architected, it could allow people's presentations of their ID to be tracked. When I present my plastic driver's license at a wine store to prove I'm over 21, generally, no record of that interaction is created, and it remains between me and the clerk.8 Digital technology, however, magnifies the potential for those presentations to be recorded, reported, and tracked.
In digital identity systems that permit such tracking, information could be gathered by the issuer (in the case of digital driver's licenses, that would be motor vehicle departments or the contractors that they hire) about every bar, club, casino, office lobby, bank, pharmacy, doctor's office, sporting arena, concert venue, and airport that an ID holder visits; every convenience store beer purchase, equipment rental, or hotel check-in; every application for social services; and every other circumstance in which they may be asked to show an ID. And again, if a digital identity system starts being used online, that list could grow exponentially to cover the web sites and online services a person uses. And digital IDs would also make it trivial for those stores, bars, banks, and other establishments to gather and share data to tie every transaction to your real identity, and then monetize that data, unless Congress provides meaningful safeguards.
* * *
6 Jay Stanley, Digital Driver's Licenses Could Make "Surveillance Pricing" Much Easier for Companies, ACLU (Sept. 15, 2025), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/surveillance-pricing-and-ids.
7 McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Comm'n, 514 U.S. 334 (1995) (anonymous election- and issue-related leaflets); Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60 (1960) (anonymous handbills).
8 See Heather Brown, What Do Driver's License Scanners Do With Our Information?, CBS News (Mar. 3, 2022), https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/drivers-license-scanners; Dana Fowle, Retailers Scanning Drivers Licenses Raises Privacy Issues, Fox 5 Atlanta (Jan. 21, 2022), https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/retailersscanning-drivers-licenses-raises-privacy-issues.
* * *
Some digital ID systems may also provide for IDs that electronically ping their issuers at regular intervals, or allow issuers to arbitrarily reach into users' wallets to alter or revoke their IDs. This sets the stage for abuses (such as taking away IDs from the authorities' political opponents or revoking IDs without due process) and threatens to invade identity holders' privacy by providing the issuer with information about the holder such as their IP address, which can reveal location and other information.9
c. Further disadvantaging those without technology
If digital IDs become mandatory, either legally or practically, that would have significant implications for equity and the "digital divide" by disadvantaging those who don't have a smartphone or other necessary devices. That is a surprisingly large group of people, including many from our most vulnerable communities. Studies have found that about one in ten people in the US do not own a smartphone, including over one-fifth of people over age 65.10 People with disabilities are less likely to own a smartphone, and many who are unhoused also lack access.11 Some may lack the resources to afford a smartphone and mobile data access, while others may lack the technological literacy to use them; in 2018 a study found that about 40% of seniors weren't able to install a mobile app on a smartphone.12 While the number unable to do so has probably grown since that study was published, there almost certainly is a portion of the population who remains unable to do so.
To worsen inequality, digital IDs need not become legally mandated, just practically required.
There's no law that says every American has to get a credit card or driver's license, but it's hard to participate fully in society without one, and those who lack them suffer significant disadvantages in today's world. If digital credentials also become practically required, the negative effects would be even more intense, even though there is also no law that says every person has to own a smartphone.
d. Capture by private companies
The provision of driver's licenses and other government identity documents is a public act. The showing of identity or attribute authentication for government services or where required by law is not something people will have a choice over. Therefore, any digital identity system should be considered essential public infrastructure, and people should not be required to do business with any one company or small number of companies in order to participate in this system. Yet there is a danger that one company or a small number of companies (such as the dominant wallet providers Apple and Google) come to play gatekeeper roles in a digital identity system. That may allow them to abuse their position to cement their market power, engage in blocking and censorship of ID uses, the tracking of individuals, or the imposition of fees or other rent-seeking behavior within the identity ecosystem. Or they may simply deny people the ability to do business with other companies in a healthy free market.
* * *
9 Jay Stanley, How to Give the Government New Power to "Un-Person" Someone, in Three Easy Steps, ACLU (Jan. 5, 2026), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/un-personing-with-digital-id.
10 See Mobile Fact Sheet, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Nov. 20, 2025), https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/.
11 See Andrew Perrin & Sara Atske, Americans With Disabilities Less Likely Than Those Without to Own Some Digital Devices, Pew Rsch. Ctr. (Sept. 10, 2021), https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/10/americanswith-disabilities-less-likely-than-those-without-to-own-some-digital-devices/.
12 Chui Yin Wong et al., Usability and Design Issues of Smartphone User Interface and Mobile Apps for Older Adults, 886 Commc'ns in Comput. & Info. Sci. (2018), https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-13-16289_9.
* * *
II. IF A DIGITAL ID SYSTEM IS CREATED, IT MUST BE DONE RIGHT
If we are to create a digital identity system in the United States, we need to make sure we build it in such a way that it does not become an infrastructure that allows us to be tracked and regimented in new ways. If digital IDs are not to become the functional equivalent of a national ID ankle monitor everyone is forced to wear, they need to have certain technological features and certain legal protections. We urge Congress to require and ensure that any digital ID systems have these features.13
a. Technological safeguards
The technological protections that should be incorporated into a digital ID include (but are not limited to):
1. No tracking. A system must not allow ID issuers visibility into where and when an ID is presented to a verifier.
2. Holder control. An ID holder -- the individual to whom the ID belongs -- should have technological control over what data they reveal to a verifier, allowing them to reveal some fields of data and not others, and to reveal characteristics such as "over age 21" without revealing details such as the holder's date of birth, or "resident of county" without revealing their address. Such "selective disclosure" is one area where a digital ID can have advantages for privacy over a physical ID, and that advantage should be fully made use of.
3. Unlinkable presentations. When the holder presents their digital credentials, the verifier should be unable to link that presentation with others from the same holder. For example, the verifier should not be able to tell that the "over 21" person buying a case of beer today is the same person who bought a bottle of wine last week. This limits the ability of any verifier (or their vendors) to assemble a map of data about who does what where.
4. Verifier transparency. An ID holder should have transparency into who is requesting identifying or authenticating information, their authority for making that request, what the specific circumstances and purpose of the request are, what information is and has been transmitted, and if that transmission involves third parties.
5. Open, not proprietary. If the United States is to adopt a digital ID, it's also vital that that ID be open and free of proprietary strings. There must be no one corporation, or small handful of corporations, that Americans are de facto required to deal with in order to participate in a digital identity system. The system must be clearly documented and open enough that it is possible for any party with the relevant skills to build an interoperable digital wallet that any legitimate ID holder can use or an interoperable verifier tool that any legitimate verifier can use. No system that our society depends upon should be built on proprietary specifications, proprietary hardware, or patent-encumbered technology.
* * *
13 For more detail on the ACLU's recommended safeguards on digital IDs, see ACLU Digital ID State Legislative Recommendations, ACLU (Oct. 2024), https://www.aclu.org/publications/aclu-digital-id-state-legislativerecommendations.
* * *
b. Legal safeguards
In addition to technical protections built into digital IDs, Congress should consider establishing legal safeguards to protect individuals from surveillance and governmental incursions: 1. An empowering option, not an imprisoning requirement. It is vital that people be provided with multiple options when it comes to identifying themselves. Providing a means for digital identification or authentication can be empowering if it gives people a new choice in how they do so. For people with certain disabilities, it can be critically important to have remote options (to verify their ID from their home, for example, rather than in a Post Office). At the same time, remote processes can be inaccessible for the many individuals who lack access to smartphones with cameras, reliable internet service, or who simply are less familiar with how to use complex technology. People should never be locked out of critical services because of a lack of technology to engage in identity verification processes.
The use of digital IDs should never become mandatory as either a legal or practical matter. We believe that people should have a right to obtain and use paper, plastic, or other physical identity documents instead of or in addition to a digital ID. Digital IDs should be accompanied by policies that bar those engaging in identification from refusing to accept physical IDs on a reasonably equal basis. Government verifiers should also be required to provide a meaningful in-person option. Digital identification must be an empowering option for people rather than a disempowering requirement. Otherwise, a digital ID system will inevitably deny significant numbers of vulnerable people access to benefits to which they are legally entitled.
2. Protections against excessive identity demands. As discussed above, a digital identity system, by making it very easy to share our ID, is likely to lead to a significant expansion in the times and places where our IDs are demanded. As a result, no digital identity system should be rolled out without properly enforced legal limits on when those engaged in commerce or other regulated activities may demand that people prove their identity with these super IDs.
3. Protections against data collection by verifiers and wallet providers. Verifiers in any system of digital IDs should have concrete legal obligations to minimize collection and retention of data, with appropriate consequences for violations. This should include a duty of loyalty, such as has already been adopted by at least one state.14 Wallet providers must also be barred from surveilling their users.
4. Protection of an open wallet ecosystem. To prevent the insertion of a private for-profit company in an identity infrastructure, policymakers must create the regulatory conditions for a flourishing open wallet marketplace that allows anyone, including open-source providers, to create a wallet that can host a digital identity document, provided they meet general security and other standards. The provisioning process by which data from issuers is loaded onto people's devices should be standardized so that anyone meeting the standards can write a wallet app and holders will have choices in which wallet they use.
* * *
14 Jay Stanley, Utah Passes Nation's Strongest Digital Identity Bill, ACLU (Mar. 30, 2026), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/utah-digital-id-law.
* * *
III. DIGITAL DRIVER'S LICENSES ARE THE MOST LIKELY FORM OF DIGITAL ID TO BECOME WIDESPREAD
A broad variety of proposals for digital identification systems have been created, and it would be preferable if we could create a future where there are multiple, independent digital ID systems giving individuals choices. But digital versions of the driver's licenses (or non-driver IDs issued by state motor vehicle agencies) are the avenue by which most people are likely to end up initially using or being forced to use a digital identity.
a. Driver's licenses are already the most common form of identification used by Americans The nation's motor vehicle departments have long had the power to put an identity document in most Americans' pockets. While it is important to stress that a significant number of people in the US do not have government IDs, 85% of Americans 14 and older have some form of driver's license according to the Federal Highway Administration, with some additional number having non-driver's IDs.15 That is why DMV-issued identification is the most commonly used form of government ID. That makes driver's licenses a natural foundation for a digital ID; the DMVs have the administrative capacity to verify and produce IDs, and many Americans are already accustomed to getting their IDs there -- and have to do so anyway in order to drive. The deeply problematic but now decades-old Real ID Act further recognized and entrenched the DMVs as the de facto source of identification for most Americans.
b. Significant problems with current ID-proofing techniques will drive adoption of digital driver's licenses
Many are looking to digital driver's licenses because existing forms of digital identity verification are deeply problematic. Perhaps even more than a digital driver's license, these systems require the ability to have and use technology -- a computer, a camera, a good internet connection, and the technological literacy to use all of them according to the verification services' instructions. This can pose significant barriers to individuals legitimately claiming government benefits.
The collection and use of detailed surveillance information on individuals that is collected in often unethical ways (such as through phone apps that secretly report location data) without their meaningful knowledge or consent is also deeply problematic. Biometric and behavioral analytics tools used for remote fraud monitoring may improperly capture and retain user information, including sensitive health information. For example, mouse movements have been used to identify cognitive impairments and screen individuals for Parkinson's disease.16
Companies that assemble information about individuals from diverse sources will also face a constant incentive to monetize that data for purposes unrelated to identify verification. In addition, when Congress eventually enacts the kind of strong overarching privacy legislation that Americans want, much of the surveillance data now being used for identity verification will dry up.
* * *
15 Highway Statistics 2024, U.S. Dep't of Transp. Fed. Highway Admin. (Feb. 2026), https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2024/dl20.cfm.
16 Kryzstof Gajos et al., Computer Mouse Use Captures Ataxia and Parkinsonism, Enabling Accurate Measurement and Detection, Wiley InterScience (Jul. 8, 2019), https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mds.27915.
* * *
Layered on top of that data collection is the problematic use of AI algorithms for analyzing the data to make decisions. As the ACLU explained in comments to the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) on its digital identity guidelines, risk-scoring tools can introduce errors and biases into fraud detection, often in ways that are difficult for victims or regulators to understand.17 The opacity of AI, in addition to the opacity of private, for-profit companies, makes it hard for victims of false-positives to receive due process.
c. There is already significant interest and activity in the states on digital driver's licenses An estimated 20 states have already implemented mobile driver's licenses, with others in various stages of preparation or consideration of doing so.18
d. Even the federal government is also moving to rely on state driver's licenses
In addition, the federal government's Login.gov site is reportedly preparing to accept digital driver's licenses as part of its identity-verification procedures. That will place driver's licenses squarely in the middle of not just state and private-sector identity verification, but federal government verification as well.19
IV. THE MOBILE DRIVER'S LICENSES THAT MANY STATES ARE ADOPTING SHOULD NOT BECOME THE STANDARD
The mDLs that many states are starting to adopt do not have the design qualities or legal protections needed to protect people's rights. mDLs are based on a standard created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) behind closed doors by a secretive international committee that, so far as we can tell, included representatives of US security agencies like DHS, tech giants, and authoritarian governments. The text of the standard is not available for democratic debate and discussion because it is secret, and it can only be obtained by paying the ISO. If you do pay, you cannot share it or post it online because it is copyrighted.
This is in no way how public policy should be made. The ISO standard is not a legitimate basis on which to move forward and risks creating a national identity system of the kind that Americans have long opposed, especially when embraced without the accompanying legal protections that it requires. Yet the TSA is embracing it, NIST is working with it, and state legislatures are being pushed to adopt it.
* * *
17 Elec. Priv. Info. Ctr. & ACLU, Comment to NIST on Digital Identity Guidelines: Enrollment and Identity Proofing, Initial Public Draft (Apr. 14, 2023), available at https://epic.org/documents/epic-and-aclu-comments-onnists-2023-digital-identity-draft-guidelines/.
18 Implementation Tracker Map, mDL Connection, https://www.mdlconnection.com/implementation-tracker-map/
19 Miranda Nazzaro, Login.gov Looks to Accept Mobile Driver's Licenses in 'Near Future', FedScoop (July 14, 2025), https://fedscoop.com/login-gov-mobile-drivers-license-user-friendly-fraud/; Natalie Alms, Government is Making Moves on Mobile Drivers Licenses, GSA Administrator Says, NextGov (July 14, 2025) https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/07/government-making-moves-mobile-drivers-licenses-gsaadministrator-says/406704/.
* * *
Reflecting the lack of public and public-interest stakeholder input, the ISO standard contains provisions for the centralized tracking of presentations (although due to the ISO's opaqueness it's unclear whether they have been removed from the latest official version under pressure from activists and the digital identity community).20 It also lacks provisions ensuring selective disclosure is implemented to ensure maximal individual empowerment, or requiring unlinkable presentations, verifier transparency, or an open wallet ecosystem free of proprietary standards or patent-encumbered technology. It also lacks protections against abusive revocations.
This form of digital ID is being adopted by states with very little federal input. It is being pushed by tech companies, banks, and the DMVs and their private association in Washington, the American Association for Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). Although the TSA has the power under the Real ID Modernization Act to influence the shape of this ID, it has so far not been using that power to ensure it doesn't become a national ID system -- and to the contrary has incorporated the ISO standard by reference into its regulations, even though those standards are not viewable by the public or by stakeholders unable or unwilling to pay to see them.21 Much of the policymaking around mDLs is being done by an opaque and democratically unaccountable private organization, AAMVA, the policies of which lack the force of law and can be changed at any time without public input.
Alternatives to adoption of the illegitimate ISO standard exist. For example, an alternate standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) called Verifiable Credentials (VCs) is a superior basis on which to build a digital identity system. And the state of Utah has spurned the mDL model and is building an alternative called State-Endorsed Digital Identity (SEDI), which, while not perfect, includes a great number of the protections that a digital identity system should have and may be gaining support in other states.22
V. COMBATING GOVERNMENT FRAUD IS NOT A SUFFICIENT JUSTIFICATION FOR CREATING A NATIONAL DIGITAL IDENTITY SYSTEM THAT WILL TAKE AWAY AMERICANS' FREEDOMS
Fraud against the government, including through improper payments, has long been a problem, and efforts to reduce it should remain unceasing in any well-governed nation. That said, a certain amount of fraud or theft is always a cost of doing business for any government or private sector program or enterprise.
* * *
20 See, e.g., No Phone Home, https://nophonehome.com/.
21 ACLU, Ctr. for Democracy & Tech., Elec. Priv. Info. Ctr., & Elec. Frontier Found., Comments to TSA on Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Waiver for Mobile Driver's Licenses (Oct. 16, 2023), available at https://www.aclu.org/documents/comments-to-the-transportation-security-administration; Minimum Standards for Driver's Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Waiver for Mobile Driver's Licenses, 89 Fed. Reg. 85340 (Oct. 25, 2024), https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/202423881.pdf.
22 Jay Stanley, Utah Passes Nation's Strongest Digital Identity Bill, ACLU (Mar. 30, 2026), https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/utah-digital-id-law.
* * *
Perspective is also important. In its April 2026 report "Payment Integrity," the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that improper payments amounted to about $186 billion in 2025.23 That is by any measure a significant amount of money. At the same time, it does not justify imposing upon the American people a national identity system that will increase tracking and control of ordinary people, diminish online freedom, including the freedom to engage in anonymous speech, and exclude a significant number of people from accessing important benefits and services.
Furthermore:
* The GAO found that 82% of the improper payments it identified are not payments to unqualified parties, but overpayments to parties who were legitimately eligible for some amount. Overpayments is not a problem that better identity proofing can solve.
* Some proportion of the $186 billion figure is a result of better reporting. The GAO says that the $24 billion increase from 2024 "is largely attributable" to better reporting. In addition, the GAO notes that Congress in 2019 required agencies to begin estimating and reporting on improper payments in programs they administer. We should expect that the reported numbers after that year would be higher than prior years even given an unchanging amount of improper payments.
* Yet, despite that more rigorous reporting, the GAO's data, when adjusted for inflation, shows the amount of overpayments in 2025 is roughly on par with the annual overpayments from the previous 15 years, with the exception of a Covid-era spike that appears to have ended. That suggests that we are not seeing a sudden new plague of improper payments fraud emerging.
Overall, the improper payments problem does not justify imposition of a digital identity system that leads to a checkpoint society and significantly erodes the freedom of Americans, especially when the most significant problem -- overpayments -- would not be solved by a digital ID system.
* * *
23 Payment Integrity: Agencies' Estimated Improper Payments Increased to $186 Billion in Fiscal Year 2025, U.S. Gov't Accountability Off. (Apr. 27, 2026), https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-26-108694.pdf.
* * *
Original text here: https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Stanley-Written-Testimony.pdf