It looks as though Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) a familiar face and voice in communications policy circles, will be throwing her hat into the presidential ring Sunday (Feb. 10).
Klobuchar has been talked about as a possible presidential pick for 2020. Now it appears she will be doing the talking.
Klobuchar, who has pushed for "dig once" broadband buildouts in tandem with road buildouts and upgrades, will be making a "major announcement" Sunday, Feb. 10, back in her home state, according to her office. She was just re-elected to her third term in 2018.
Related: Sen. Klobuchar Seeks Hearing on Disney-Fox
As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, she has argued for maintaining kids TV rules in the face of the FCC Republican majority effort to loosen them and backed a bill to increase political ad transparency online in the wake of Russian election meddling.
She also last year got a Directors Guild of America award for "longstanding commitment to fighting for creators’ rights and safeguarding the content created by DGA members and the entertainment industry." That includes her longtime championing of bills to preserve copyright protections and prevent unauthorized streaming of copyrighted works, including by providing new tools to combat online pirates. "Senator Klobuchar has been unwavering in her dedication to protecting creators’ rights," DGA said.
In fact, whether it is closing the digital divide, pressing for cybersecurity protections, calling for hearings on media mergers, trying to get then Attorney General Jeff Sessions to promise not to jail reporters for 'doing their jobs'--he didn't--or protecting the current treatment of advertising as a "fully and immediately deductible" expense, Klobuchar has been in the thick of it.
As ranking member of the antitrust subcommittee, she just last week revived a legislative effort to revise antitrust law to raise the bar for merger approvals, pointing to the $10 trillion in merger activity in the U.S. since 2008 and lowering of that bar via court decisions.
Also in that capacity, she grilled then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on his defense of net neutrality deregulation while on the D.C. Appeals Court.
