The majority of the population does NOT want to see this pass, yet it made it through the Senate with NO opposition?
No. It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. The first four words of the summary are what gave it away. All bills have to pass committee before going to the full Senate or House.
What it's supposed to do is stuff that's valuable to humanity, but costs a lot of money and isn't expected to make a profit. This is essentially the role of any government organization: Do the things that will benefit everyone, but that businesses are unwilling to take on because there isn't enough money in it.
That may be true of the former Soviet Union and some modern European countries, but but the United States government was established to "form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity..." What you said may be A role, but its not a major role and certainly not "essential".
An authority is a person who can tell you more about something than you really care to know.
