The US Senate will take on the state of journalism later today, when the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation holds a hearing on the future of the industry.

The first scheduled speaker is Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), who introduced a bill in March that would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits. Among the other panelists are Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience at Google; Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington; Steve Coll, former managing editor of The Washington Post; and David Simon, former Baltimore Sun reporter and author and TV producer.