Week of June 17, 2024
State of Play: It’s a relatively calm week in Washington as the House is in recess this week, while the Senate has an abridged session given the Juneteenth holiday this Wednesday. The next few weeks are a bit out of sorts with one chamber in and the other out. Both chambers will be on recess July 4th week, too. The countdown is on for Members to get their legislative priorities across the finish line with just three weeks left with both chambers in session.
What to Watch:
The Senate will hold a rescheduled (again) markup of the Spectrum and National Security Act Tuesday to reauthorize spectrum auction authority for the Federal Communications Commission.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is calling on Congress to require a surgeon general’s warning label for social media platforms in an New York Time op-ed today.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is in the hot seat Tuesday at Senate HSGAC to discuss recent reports of work culture and safety.
On Tap:
Given the light hearing schedule this week, we are keeping an eye on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as two versions move through the House and Senate. Senate HSGAC is out with a new report highlighting concerns of AI use by hedge fund operators. And the question at the top of everyone’s list - will Congress move on privacy this year? More on that below.
Three Things To Watch In Tech:
House and Senate Move on NDAA Bills: The annual NDAA is one of the few remaining must-pass items for Congress to act on this year. Both the House and Senate have taken steps to move the FY25 NDAA forward, with the House passing its version of the bill and the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) passing its version. The House-passed version of the bill includes some notable tech provisions on AI, cybersecurity, and data storage, like an amendment which adds a Sense of Congress for the armed forces to adopt innovative technologies like AI and quantum. While text has not yet been released for the Senate version, SASC provided an executive summary which also includes several provisions on cyber, AI, biotechnology, and emerging weapons and technologies, and ways to counter them. The Senate could act on the bill as soon as July, but the fall is more likely given past precedent. The chambers will then reconcile NDAA language in a conference report before the end of the year.
HSGAC’s Skepticism of AI and Hedge Funds: Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chair Gary Peters (D-MI) is out with a new report highlighting transparency concerns around hedge funds’ use of AI systems. The report discusses ways in which hedge funds are implementing AI to make trading decisions, and possibly skirting regulatory disclosure requirements because of the nature of AI. Rather than focusing all criticism on hedge funds, the report calls on regulators to act more quickly to establish a regulatory framework around AI and implement safeguards. It specifically calls on the SEC and CFTC to establish clear definitions of what qualifies as an “AI trading system,” as well as develop a risk assessment framework to address AI risks to the broader financial system. Peters has been focused on the government's use of AI, including establishing regulatory principles on AI sector-specific risks.
Will Congress Act on Privacy?: Privacy remains the topic du jour for the tech industry, and the question on everyone’s mind is if Congress will act on it this year. House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), who is leaving congress at the end of this year, has suggested that privacy is her top priority. Her and Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell’s (D-WA) bill, the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA), sailed through the House Energy and Commerce Innovation subcommittee last month, but has appeared to stall since. There was speculation that the bill could move to the full committee last Thursday, but those plans did not materialize. It is likely the legislation could still move prior to the August recess, but faces an uphill battle in the Senate given the time crunch. The legislation would provide federal preemption over state laws and offer a comprehensive regulatory regime for data privacy concerns.
What’s Happening This Week:
Tech Hearings
House recess week
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a markup of S. 4207 the "Spectrum and National Security Act of 2024” on Tuesday, June 18 at 10:00 AM EST
Tech Events
DeFiance TV - AI:MEDIA 2024 at the National Press Club - Monday, June 17 at 6:00 PM EST
R Street Institute - Cybersecurity: Tackling the Policy Puzzle - Tuesday, June 18 at 9:00 AM EST
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies - Virtual discussion on Cryptocurrency and the Bankman Fried Litigation: Lessons Learned - Tuesday, June 18 at 2:30 PM EST
British American Business Association webinar on AI and health care - Tuesday, June 18 at 11:30 AM ET
British American Business Association webinar on data privacy and transatlantic approaches to data security - Friday, June 21 at 12:00 PM ET
What’s Interesting This Week:
Fire Up the Old Type-Writer… On June 23, 1868, Latham Sholes, Carlos Glidden, and Samuel Soule were awarded a patent for the “Type-Writer” which would become the basis for the first practical and commercially successful typewriter. Evolving into what would become known as the Sholes and Glidden typewriter (which would later become the Remington No. 1), one of its lasting legacies was the introduction of the QWERTY keyboard, which is still the most popular keyboard layout in the world to this day. A popular theory states that the design of the QWERTY keyboard was intended to slow down typists in order to minimize the clashing of the typebars which would jam up the early typewriters. There is little evidence to support this theory, however, and a research study published in 2011 asserts that the QWERTY design was more directly influenced by feedback from telegraph operators who were early adopters of typewriters and found previous keyboard layouts inefficient.
