WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Mineta National Transportation Research Consortium at San Jose State University was awarded $7 million in federal funding for transportation research, announced U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) today. The grant requires a fifty percent match by regional and state partners, in total a $10.5 million investment. The grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers program in five yearly installments of $1.4 million, will serve the... Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A combined $834,759 in federal funding for new programs at San Jose State University was announced today by U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). Two grants, awarded by the National Science Foundation, will support an interdisciplinary technology program for undergraduates and a study of astronomical science at SJSU. A third grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will support a new SJSU program to help libraries explore expanding internet access in their communi... Read more

SAN JOSE, CA – Today, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) announced a new federal grant was awarded to South Bay Area video compression startup NGCodec Inc. The $750,000 grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, will support NGCodec’s video encoder project, a hardware field programmable gate-array (FGPA) implementation of H.265/HEVC low latency encoder algorithms for next-generation video compression. “With the lion’s sh... Read more

SAN JOSE, CA – On August 29, 2016, the Department of Homeland Security published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for foreign startup entrepreneurs. Under this proposed rule, DHS may parole, on a case-by-case basis, eligible entrepreneurs whose startup companies provide “significant public benefit.” U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), Mike Honda (D-Silicon Valley), and Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) applauded the proposed rule as an important step towards creating jobs for Americans and benefiting ... Read more

SANTA CLARA, CA – Nearly $2.5 million in federal funding was awarded to Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority (VTA) to purchase electric zero-emissions buses and related infrastructure. The federal grant was announced today by U.S. Reps. Mike Honda (D-Silicon Valley), Anna G. Eshoo (D-Palo Alto) and Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). The grant of $2,458,305 – competitively awarded under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Low or No Emission Bus and Bus Facilities program – will be used to purchase bat... Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House of Representatives is set to debate and vote on a renewed effort to restrict warrantless surveillance. The amendment, offered to the Fiscal Year 2017 Department of Defense appropriations bill by Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), would prohibit warrantless backdoor searches of U.S. citizens’ online communications without first obtaining a warrant. It would also prevent the government from coercing individuals and companies to insert softwar... Read more

Exciting new developments are underway which will soon allow federal agencies to construct power charging stations for employees with electric vehicles at no cost to the taxpayer. I recently received an update from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) assuring me that encouraging progress is being made in implementing my recently passed legislation – the EV-COMUTE Act – and that concrete steps are being taken towards fostering more environmentally conscious transportation optio... Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and Mike Honda (D-Silicon Valley) today submitted a regulatory comment on the notice of proposed rulemaking affecting high-skilled nonimmigrant workers, a centerpiece of the President’s executive actions on employment-based immigration. “Employment-based immigration programs, like so much of our immigration system, are broken. They are plagued by fundamental problems that only Congress can fix. Arbitrary, outdated visa quotas have trapped th... Read more

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) issued the following statement today after voting against the Fiscal Year 2016 Omnibus Appropriations Act: “I was unable to vote for the Omnibus spending bill today because it included an extraneous provision purported to facilitate cybersecurity information sharing that – in effect – will function as a surveillance tool. “Congress has debated cybersecurity for the past year. I voted for a bill passed by the House that addressed cybersecurity w... Read more

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) introduced the Wireless Tax Fairness Act, a bipartisan, consumer-friendly bill to place a 5-year moratorium on new taxes and fees for wireless services. On average, wireless customers pay nearly 18% in taxes and fees, largely imposed on state and municipal levels. These wireless taxes effect a growing number of consumers and fall disproportionately on younger, lower-income, and working Americans who tend to rely... Read more