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Full committee markup.

06/24/2026 at 11:00AM

America is living through a defining political moment. Since January 2025, it has become increasingly clear how concentrated private power can threaten liberty, democratic self-government, and a free press. More Americans are recognizing the need to rebuild the rules and institutions that allowed so much power to accumulate in so few hands.

Join us on June 24 as policymakers, researchers, journalists, technology experts, and political strategists come together to explore a vision for democratic renewal. The event will focus on the ideas, narratives, policies, and organizing strategies needed to win power—and use it to build a political economy that supports freedom, opportunity, and shared prosperity.

Designed to shape the next phase of American political debate, the event will elevate the fight against concentrated private power as a central challenge of our time while helping align political, policy, and organizing communities around a common agenda. At a moment of rising authoritarian threats and growing demand for change, it aims to define what comes next.

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AGENDA Doors Open & Registration 8:30 AM ET

Welcome
9:00 AM | Remarks | Open Markets Institute Executive Director Barry Lynn

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Morning Presentation: California Attorney General Rob Bonta
9:10 AM | Remarks & Moderated Q&A

Moderator: Julia Angwin, New York Times contributing opinion writer & author of On Courage: How to be a Dissident in an Age of Fear

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has emerged as one of the nation’s most aggressive antitrust enforcers, taking on Amazon, Google, and Nexstar while scrutinizing major media consolidation. His core argument—and the focus of this session—is straightforward: the information crisis isn’t a content problem. It’s a power problem.

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We’ve Done It Before: Reclaiming America’s Anti-Monopoly Tradition 9:30 AM | Panel

On the 250th anniversary of our republic, we remember that America was founded in opposition to concentrated power—from the British East India Company to the industrial trusts of the first Gilded Age. Today, we face a new era of oligarchy: platform monopolies, AI gatekeepers, and billionaires with unprecedented influence over our economy, politics, and information systems. This opening panel asks the defining question of our time: What vision can unite Americans to reclaim democratic power, challenge oligarchy, and renew the promise of self-government?

Speakers:

Sabeel Rahman, Cornell Law Professor

Zephyr Teachout, Fordham Law Professor

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Recorded Remarks from Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel laureate in economics, Institute Professor of Economics at MIT, and co-author (with James A. Robinson) of Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty and (with Simon Johnson) of Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity

10:00 AM | Video

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Remarks from Representative Greg Casar (TX-35), Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC)

10:07 AM

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Power, Freedom and Affordability: Building a Bigger Story That Wins 10:15 AM | Panel | Moderator: Perry Bacon Jr., staff writer at The New Republic

Across the political spectrum, Americans believe the economy and political system are rigged by the wealthy and well-connected, leaving ordinary people with less power, higher costs, and a weaker voice. Yet despite growing demand for reform, many voters see Democrats as ineffective and too tied to the same interests they criticize. This panel asks: How can the pro-democracy movement tell a compelling story about power, freedom, democracy, and affordability—and earn the trust needed to deliver transformative change?

Speakers:

Representative Becca Balint (VT-AL)

Representative Chris Deluzio (PA-17)

Chris Rabb, Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District

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11:00 AM – 11:15 AM COFFEE BREAK

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The Populist Playbook: The Politics of Breaking the Oligarchy (Part 1) 11:15 AM | Panel | Moderator: David Weigel, politics reporter at Semafor

The 2024 election was a warning. Voters frustrated by rising costs, immigration, and a political system they felt wasn’t listening to them returned Donald Trump to power, exposing deep weaknesses in the Democratic Party’s approach. Our next two panels bring together campaign strategists and pollsters to examine why right-wing populism has succeeded, what a compelling liberal alternative looks like, and how to build a durable majority for structural reform.

The focus: What must change—in our politics, our movement, and our campaigns—to break through polarization, win new voters, and secure lasting change? The first panel explores public sentiment and the big-picture shifts needed; the second panel (1:30 PM) focuses on the messages, strategies, and tactics winning races today.

Speakers:

Liz Bennett, partner, Middle Seat Digital

Adam Carlson, founding partner, Zenith Research

Adam Green, co-founder, Progressive Change Campaign Committee

Matt Koos, chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio

Celinda Lake, president, Lake Research Partners

Evan Roth Smith, founding partner, Slingshot Strategies

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12:15-1:00 PM: LUNCH SERVED

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Keynote from Senator Chris Murphy 1:00 PM | Remarks

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The Populist Playbook: The Politics of Breaking the Oligarchy (Part II) 1:30 PM | Panel

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A Conversation with American Compass’s Chris Griswold 2:15 PM | Fireside Chat

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2:40 PM – 2:55 PM COFFEE BREAK

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Fireside Chat with Dan Osborn, Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska

3:00 PM | Moderator: Alvaro Bedoya, former FTC Commissioner

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Who Does Our Foreign Policy Actually Serve? Reclaiming American Leadership from the Oligarchs 3:35 PM | Panel

Oligarchy doesn’t stop at the border. Over the last several decades, concentrated private power has reshaped the global economy and foreign policy in ways that have weakened democratic institutions, heightened geopolitical tensions, undermined national sovereignty, and increased the risks of economic, industrial, and military conflict. This panel asks a few fundamental questions: How did we get here? What would genuinely democratic foreign policy look like—one that puts people and shared prosperity ahead of concentrated private power? And how can we achieve it?

Speakers:

Alexandra Geese, member of the European Parliament [via video]

Katherine Tai, former U.S. Trade Representative

Matthew Duss, executive vice president, Center for International Policy

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Fireside Chat with Senator Chris Van Hollen 4:15 PM

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Control Over What You Think: Billionaire Power and the Fight for the Information Environment 4:45 PM | Panel

The information crisis is often framed as a debate over content and algorithms. At its core, it is a power problem. A handful of billionaires and dominant platforms increasingly control how information is produced, distributed, and consumed—with little public accountability and few meaningful alternatives. This panel explores how concentrated power reshaped our information environment and what it would take to build one that serves democracy rather than private interests.

Speakers:

Julia Angwin, New York Times contributing opinion writer & author of On Courage: How to be a Dissident in an Age of Fear

Joseph Geevarghese, executive director, Our Revolution

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Learning How to Talk About AI and Power Like the Pope 5:05 PM | Panel | Moderator: Eoin Higgins, journalist & author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left

AI is one of the biggest sources of anxiety for voters across the political spectrum, yet that concern has not yet translated into a clear political demand. As a handful of powerful corporations shape the future of AI with little democratic oversight, this panel explores how concerns about jobs, inequality, information, surveillance, and freedom can be connected into a compelling public agenda—and a winning political movement.

Speakers:

Kate Brennan, senior director, AI Now Institute

Sally Hubbard, senior fellow, Open Markets Institute

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Keynote from Senator Elizabeth Warren 5:30 PM

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Reception to follow.

Top of the Hill - Washington, DC
1 Constitution Ave NE, Washington, DC 20002

06/24/2026 at 09:00AM

Across the United States, communities are already facing worsening climate impacts during “Danger Season”—the period between May and October when extreme heat, drought, flooding, wildfires, and storms hit hardest.

And these risks are being made worse by the Trump administration’s destructive agenda that is undermining our ability to forecast, prepare, and respond to climate and extreme weather disasters.

The Union of Concerned Scientists invites you to a Danger Season Action Hour on how the Trump administration’s attacks on crucial climate science and resilience policies are putting people at risk—and what you can do to fight back.

Date: Tuesday, June 23 Time: 7:30–8:30 p.m. ET

From dismantling federal climate research programs to cutting funding for agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency, recent Trump administration actions are eroding life-saving science and disaster preparedness programs. At the same time, rising energy costs and economic pressures are leaving families less able to cope with climate extremes.

At this event, UCS climate resilience expert, Shana Udvardy, will explain:

• How attacks on climate science and resilience policies are undermining our ability to prepare for, respond to and recover from climate and extreme weather disasters; and
• What these changes mean for your community.

Campaign Manager Kate Cell and Senior Organizer Shabd Singh will explain:

• How we can hold decision-makers accountable; and
• Actions you can take right now to protect science and public safety.

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06/23/2026 at 07:30PM

We’re calling on FIFA World Cup, sponsored by oil giant Aramco, & other teams to drop their fossil fuel sponsorships.

Join us at a stadium near you on June 21!

Pick your stadium from this list & we’ll send you details.

City/Sport/Stadium/Sponsor

Boston/Foxborough, MA: FIFA World Cup, Gillette Stadium (Aramco)

Miami: FIFA World Cup game at Hard Rock Stadium (Aramco)

Los Angeles: Dodger game at Dodger Stadium (Phillips 66)

Los Angeles: FIFA World Cup game at SoFi Stadium (Aramco)

Seattle: FIFA World Cup, Lumen Field (Aramco)

Atlanta: FIFA World Cup game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Aramco)

Philadelphia: FIFA World Cup, Lincoln Financial Field (Aramco)

SF Bay Area: FIFA World Cup, Levi Stadium, Santa Clara (Aramco)

Kansas City: FIFA World Cup, GEHA Field/Arrowhead Stadium (Aramco)

Dallas: FIFA World Cup, AT&T Stadium (Aramco)

Houston: FIFA World Cup, NRG Stadium (Aramco)

East Rutherford, New Jersey: FIFA World Cup, MetLife Stadium (Aramco)

Vancouver, Canada: FIFA World Cup game at BC Place Stadium (Aramco)

Mexico: FIFA World Cup, Guadalajara, Mexico City & Monterrey (Aramco)

Toronto, Canada: FIFA World Cup, BMO Field (Aramco)

Portland, OR, Portland Timbers, Providence Park (Bank of America)

Sacramento, Sacramento Kings, Golden 1 Center (BP, Shell)

Cleveland, Cleveland Guardians, Progressive Field (Marathon Petroleum)

St. Louis: St. Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium (Phillips 66)

Arlington, TX: Texas Rangers, Globe Life Field (Energy Transfer)

06/21/2026 at 10:00AM

Join Jonathan Foley, Ph.D, Executive Director of Project Drawdown, for a conversation with renowned climate scientist and communicator, Katharine Hayhoe, Ph.D.

From attacks on climate science by the current administration to the faltering of international climate negotiations and the rise of disinformation, the past few years have presented unprecedented challenges for everyone working on advancing science-based climate solutions. Join Katharine and Jon as they explore what it takes to connect across differences, how to communicate climate science with accuracy and empathy, and where in the world to look for meaningful action.

Their conversation will unpack many common misconceptions about climate solutions, discuss why breaking the “climate silence” and imagining a better future is so essential, and why and how we talk about climate change may matter just as much as the science itself.

After attending this conversation between two of the titans in the world of climate science and solutions, you’ll come away equipped and inspired with new insights into how to catalyze change.

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06/16/2026 at 02:00PM

On Friday, June 12, 2026, at 10:00 a.m. (CDT), the Committee on Natural Resources will hold a legislative field hearing on a Discussion Draft of the “Great American Outdoors Act 250.” The hearing will examine legislation reauthorizing and reforming the Great American Outdoors Act to enhance public access, improve infrastructure, and create new outdoor recreation opportunities in one of our nation’s crown jewels – Hot Springs National Park.

This hearing will be held at The Arlington Hotel, 239 Central Ave., in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

06/12/2026 at 10:00AM

Representative Ro Khanna, Congressional Candidate Wala Blegay, Christian Nunes of Equality Bound Solutions, and Mitch Jones of Food and Water Action join PDA’s Alan Minsky to discuss the threat posed by unregulated data centers.

These enormous industrial facilities are driving up energy costs, using up scarce water resources, and threatening neighborhoods. Find out what we can do to protect ourselves from this looming menace.

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06/11/2026 at 11:00AM

The Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will meet in open session to conduct a hearing entitled, “AI and the American Dream: Promoting Innovation, Affordability, and American Dominance.”

Witnesses:

• Mike Flynn, Senior Vice President and Counsel, The Information Technology Industry Council
• David Feith, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute
• Will Rinehart, Senior Fellow, The American Enterprise Institute
• Dr. Sarah Myers West, Co-Executive Director, AI Now Institute

Myers West:

In the first quarter of 2026, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft reported spending $130.65 billion in capital expenditures for data centers—71 percent higher than what they spent during the same quarter of 2025. These four companies anticipate spending approximately $700 billion this year. Morgan Stanley analysts project that combined, Big Tech companies will spend nearly $3 trillion through 2028, but only generate half of that amount in cash. To finance this buildout, tech companies are taking on an increased amount of debt: in 2025, big tech firms issued $121 billion in new debt, but this number is anticipated to balloon in the years to come: Morgan Stanley is estimating debt issuance will top $500 billion this year. … Private equity firms are key conduits for the vast amounts of capital going into data centers. In 2025, private equity investment into data center transactions/deals reached $45 billion.

OpenAI is on the hook for over a trillion in deals with other AI firms and chipmakers, including a $300 billion deal with Oracle for its compute infrastructure, $250 billion with Microsoft for its Azure infrastructure (which includes Microsoft’s 26% return ownership share of OpenAI); $38 billion to rent access to Amazon Web Services servers, (a deal which could expand under a revised structure), $22 billion with CoreWeave for use of its data centers, a deal with Google Cloud, a “strategic partnership” to deploy 10 gigawatts of AI data centers with Nvidia (in return for Nvidia’s $100 billion investment into OpenAI), a multi-billion dollar chip deal with AMD (a deal that enables OpenAI to take a 10% ownership stake in AMD), and a partnership with Broadcom to develop and deploy chips that OpenAI would design.

The revenue needed for the industry to break even is becoming astronomical: a widely cited study from Bain estimates that $2 trillion in new revenue is needed by 2030 to fund the current AI scaling trend.

Last month, after burning through its entire 2026 AI budget in only four months, Uber’s COO asserted the costs of AI were getting harder to justify because they were not translating into useful customer features. And Uber is not alone: a June 2026 Bain study found that nearly 40% of companies said their cost reductions from AI were significantly less than expected. More troubling, 44% of companies based their next wave of AI investments on previous rounds of savings—savings that have consistently come in below expectations.35 As the study put it, “self-funding the next wave from past returns sounds like discipline. In reality, it is a circular bet with a structural leak.” Scaling revenue may be further challenged by delays in data center construction: recent reporting in the Financial Times found that 40% of data centers planned for 2026 are delayed, further increasing financial risk at the level of individual firm bets.

An AI bubble burst could wipe out over $20 trillion in American household wealth, three trillion more than the financial crisis.

Private credit companies deploy capital that comes from 401(k) accounts, life insurance plans, and pensions; they’ve made a casino of American workers’ financial security. For example, both New York and Pennsylvania’s state pension plans are invested in Blue Owl’s $7 billion digital infrastructure fund, which in turn has loaned out money to finance data centers for Meta in Richland Parish, Louisiana. If Meta fails to post revenues that justify its planned $125 billion in spending for 2026—a move that led to a 6% decline in its stock attributed to investor anxiety—the effects will be felt across the country.

The subsidies that AI firms have received are extraordinary, ranging from federal backing of a $1 billion loan to bring the Three Mile Island nuclear plant back online to power Microsoft’s A.I. data centers, to offering up $1 billion in AI funding through the Big Beautiful Bill, to allocating federal lands for data center construction, outlining new ‘private public partnerships’ at national laboratories that house treasure troves of genomic data that can be leveraged for commercial use, to its Export AI initiative, which leverages the apparatus of the federal government in support of deal-brokering on behalf of AI firms. Looking at the evidence, a bailout of the AI sector has arguably already begun, before Congress has meaningfully acted to protect the public and the economy from the risks introduced by the industry.

06/11/2026 at 10:00AM

Classified subcommittee markup.

06/11/2026 at 09:00AM

The purpose of the hearing is to conduct oversight of the Colorado River Basin, including its current hydrologic conditions and ongoing negotiations regarding post-2026 operations.

Witnesses

Panel I

• Andrea Travnicek, Assistant Secretary, Water and Science, United States Department of the Interior
• David Palumbo, Deputy Commissioner of Operations, United States Bureau of Reclamation

Panel 2

• Amy Hass, Executive Director, The Colorado River Authority of Utah
• Mike Vickrey, Rancher, Green River Valley Cattlemen’s Association
• Tom Kiernan, President & Chief Executive Officer, American Rivers
• Bill Hasencamp, Manager, Colorado River Resources, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

06/10/2026 at 10:00AM