Michael Taggart

Tech Brief: Happening on the Hill

By Andrew Small and Oma Seddiq

September, 2024

The closely watched Kids Online Safety Act got a lukewarm reception among many House Energy and Commerce members at a committee markup last week, Oma Seddiq reports.

Lawmakers approved the bill by voice vote, but lingering concerns threaten passage. The Senate in July passed its version, which requires social media companies to make their platforms safer for kids. The House leaves at the end of this week and returns after the election.

• Ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), who opposes the bill in its current form: “We’re still going to try to build the consensus but as you can see, people were all over the lot,” he said.
• Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), lead sponsor in the Senate: “I’m very hopeful that we’ll see action as soon as possible. I think the likelihood is the lame duck,” he said. “There are a number of options that we’ll explore to work out the differences. I think the Senate is a strong bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support — 91 to 3. So, I’m hopeful it will be the basis for the bill that passes.”
• Michael Taggart, former Republican committee staffer, now government affairs director at lobbying firm Ferox Strategies: “My personal sense is that the proponents thought that the politics would kind of overtake any policy concerns at the markup,” he said. “And clearly, that didn’t happen, and they had to make a call that had to go by voice, otherwise there’d be a substantial number of no votes.”

Hearings this Week

• The CrowdStrike software update glitch will get a hearing Tuesday in the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection.
• A Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee will hold a hearing Tuesday on global cyberspace threats.

The Senate HELP Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety will hold a hearing Wednesday on preparing workers for AI.