Overview
- During a Commerce Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Moreno said he recorded Democrats’ vehicle identification numbers to check whether their cars had optional safety technologies.
- Sen. Jacky Rosen objected, calling the practice stalking and “a little creepy,” and noted she rides in a staffer’s car in Washington rather than using her own.
- Rosen sought unanimous consent to require Moreno to disclose how he obtained the VINs and what he plans to do with them, but Chairman Ted Cruz did not grant the request.
- Committee Democrats, backed by ranking member Maria Cantwell, are considering ethics and privacy inquiries, with no formal proceeding opened and key details of Moreno’s data collection still unclear.
- Moreno and his spokesperson defended the tactic as relying on publicly visible information, as the exchange broadened into a clash over the ongoing government shutdown and member pay.