Week of March 4, 2024
From President Biden’s State of the Union (SOTU) on Thursday to yet another potential shutdown in Congress on Friday, this is shaping up to be one of the busiest weeks of the year yet. And not to mention the chatter about Senate Republicans seeking a shot at leadership in the wake of Minority Leader McConnell announcing he would not seek re-election as Republican Leader when his term expires in November.
Over the weekend, the House and Senate released six reconciled FY2024 appropriations bills, which are expected to pass in order to partially fund the government before Friday’s deadline. The bills include several tech funding provisions around AI and emerging tech. More on that below.
The President’s highly-anticipated SOTU will be one to watch as he lays out the Administration's priorities for the year leading up to the November election, so get your popcorn ready.
The absence of AI hearings for the second week in a row is not lost on us, but we are tracking movement on potential legislation and activity in both Chambers on AI, particularly as the House AI Task Force begins its work.
What We’re Watching:
Congress Releases Minibus Including Tech Spending: House and Senate appropriators over the weekend issued a six-bill minibus to keep the government partially funded and avoid a shutdown. The bills include funding for: Military Construction and VA; Agriculture and FDA; Commerce, Justice, and Science; Energy and Water; Interior and Environment; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development. The spending package totals roughly $460 billion, and includes key provisions to fund tech initiatives, like $1.46 billion to fund National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) as well as $9.06 billion for the National Science Foundation (NSF). NIST funding also includes $10 million for the agency to establish the AI Safety Institute, as well as execute several cybersecurity programs and other emerging tech provisions. The House is expected to vote on the package this Wednesday before moving to the Senate. However, this still leaves half of the federal government under a CR that expires on March 22nd. Appropriators continue to work on these more controversial six bills ahead of that funding expiration date.
What to Expect on Tech in the State of the Union: President Biden is set to give his State of the Union speech on Thursday, which is the latest address since 1934. The upcoming presidential race is likely to take up a lot of bandwidth in his comments, focusing on Administration’s accomplishments during Biden’s first term. Biden is expected to lay out several policy considerations including on health care, Ukraine, and election integrity, and pose a dichotomy with Former President Trump, who is expected to solidify the Republican nomination this week as state primaries trudge on. It is also likely Biden will reiterate the need for children’s online safety protections, as well as the need to establish a federal privacy law. On AI, the President may address the risks posed by AI in elections, particularly in the wake of a deepfake AI-voice cloning of himself during the New Hampshire primaries.
Congress’ Latest AI Actions: This two-week AI hearing drought is a first in quite some time, but don’t let that lull fool you. There is still plenty happening on the AI front as the House has reinvigorated its AI Task Force, appointing 24 bipartisan Members to explore ways for the chamber to tackle the broader issue. One of the Task Force Chairs, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), suggested that this would be a multiyear process using different bills to address various AI topics rather than creating an all-in-one legislative framework. In the Senate, leaders on AI, including Senators Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Todd Young (R-IN), said that a report on guidelines for possible AI legislation is expected to be issued by the end of the month. The report is a compilation of lessons learned from the Senate AI Insight Forums held last fall, and will serve as “kind of a path forward for the committees to start their work,” said Rounds. Senator Young said that he expects the committees to begin marking up AI legislation early this spring based upon the Senate leaders’ report.
What’s Happening This Week:
Tech Hearings
Tech Events
Incompas Policy Summit - Tuesday, March 5 at 8:00 AM ET
The Center for Strategic and International Studies - "Leveraging Digital Technologies to Empower Women" - Tuesday, March 5 at 10:00 AM ET
NAIAC meeting on AI safety - Tuesday, March 5 10:00 AM ET
Washington Post Live - "A New Era of Generative Artificial Intelligence and Tackling Misinformation" - Tuesday, March 5 at 11:00 AM ET
The Government Executive Media Group and the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center - "Quantum Speaker Series Presents: Strangeworks: Accelerating Innovation through Quantum Computing & AI" - Tuesday, March 5 at 1:30 PM ET
The Center for Strategic and International Studies - "Optimizing U.S. Export Controls for Critical and Emerging Technologies - Working with Partners" - Tuesday, March 5 at 2:15 PM ET
The United States Energy Association - "Electric Utilities and Artificial Intelligence" - Wednesday, March 6 at 12:00 PM ET
CQ Roll Call and FiscalNote - "Navigating AI and Data Privacy in the U.S.: Policy Developments to Watch in 2024" - Thursday, March 7 at 2:00 PM ET
What’s Interesting This Week:
The World’s First Computer Programmer… In honor of March being Women’s History Month, and International Women’s Day on March 8th, we’re highlighting some of the many women that impacted tech as we know it today. Known as “the world’s first computer programmer,” Ada Lovelace was the daughter of poet, Lord Byron, and his wife, Anna Isabella-Byron, and is known for her work on with Charles Babbage on the “Analytical Engine,” which is thought to resemble elements of the modern computer. It was Lovelace's notes on the Analytical Engine that Alan Turing used as a form of inspiration for his work on the first modern computer in the 1940s.
