Week of June 24, 2024
State of Play: The House is in this week with a packed schedule ahead of the Fourth of July recess, while the Senate begins a two week recess. Several Committees are in a “hurry up and wait” pattern on their legislative priorities, and the likelihood Congress will act on certain tech priorities before the election is growing slim.
What to Watch:
The first presidential debate will take place on Thursday, as current President Joe Biden goes head-to-head with former President Donald Trump. The event unofficially feels like the start of election season.
Members are inching closer to a new FDIC Chair, as nominee Christy Goldsmith Romero secures a July 11 Senate Banking confirmation hearing.
The Treasury has issued its long-awaited proposed rule on outbound U.S. investment in Chinese tech companies, setting the stage for possible industry clash.
On Tap: Cyber and China are the focus for this week in the House for several committees, including House Homeland, House Oversight, House Financial Services, and of course the House Select Committee on the CCP. We’ll also be listening in on a House Judiciary IP Subcommittee hearing reviewing copyright law. It’s a big week in House Energy and Commerce as the Innovation Subcommittee will hear from Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on the agency’s FY25 budget. The full Committee is expected to markup a new version of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) on Thursday.
Three Things to Watch In Tech:
All Eyes on China: Several Committees are holding hearings this week to discuss China competition concerns, manufacturing, and political warfare, as well as focus on the ways the U.S. is combating these challenges. First on deck is the House Oversight Committee’s part two of its hearing series on “CCP’s political warfare,” which takes a closer look at how the CCP has worked to interfere in U.S. elections, as well as other cyber and espionage attempts. The House Select Committee on the CCP is tackling manufacturing and supply chain issues with China, particularly aimed at steel and semiconductors. And lastly the House Financial Services National Security Subcommittee is taking on the Export-Import Bank, and discussing the ways the U.S. is utilizing export controls in China competition efforts. The hearings fall on the heels of Treasury’s expansive notice of proposed rulemaking to curb U.S. investments in high tech Chinese companies - a lengthy initiative from the Biden Administration - that has previously stirred intraparty ire amongst House and Senate Republicans. These hearing discussions are likely to reinvigorate the discussion on an outbound investment regime.
Bolstering the Cyber Workforce and Securing Critical Infrastructure: Cybersecurity again takes center stage this week in House Homeland, as the full Committee is scheduled to discuss ways to bolster the cyber workforce. This hearing will feature government witnesses and primarily focus on filling the nearly 500,000 vacant cybersecurity jobs in the U.S., and in particular, look at how the current shortage fares with the far-outpaced number of Chinese hackers, per the hearing announcement. It remains to be seen if a legislative solution on this will be a priority for Chairman Green before the year’s end. On Thursday, the Cyber Subcommittee will focus on sectoral approaches to securing critical infrastructure, a significant priority for the subcommittee.
APRA Gets Full Committee Markup: House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) unveiled new text of the American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) last Thursday, which will be made public this week. After working through negotiations on the legislation, Ranking Member Pallone is now a lead cosponsor. The new text notably excludes a previous section on algorithmic impact assessments on civil rights and AI, which gave pause to some members who felt that the provisions were overly broad. With the Chair and Ranking Member aligned, the bill has a greater chance of receiving bipartisan Committee support similar to the ADPPA last congress. But time will tell if the legislation will receive floor time, as several Republicans have already voiced strong opposition.
What's Happening This Week:
Senate recess week.
House Homeland Security will hold a hearing on “Finding 500,000: Addressing America’s Cyber Workforce Gap” - Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 AM EST
House Oversight and Accountability will hold a hearing on “Defending America from the Chinese Communist Party’s Political Warfare, Part II” - Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 AM EST
The House Energy and Commerce Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee will hold a hearing on "The Fiscal Year 2025 Department of Commerce Budget" - Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 AM EST
The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party will hold a hearing on "From High Tech to Heavy Steel: Combatting the PRC's Strategy to Dominate Semiconductors, Shipbuilding and Drones" - Wednesday, June 26th at 10:30 AM EST
The House Judiciary Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Radio, Music, and Copyrights: 100 Years of Inequity for Recording Artists” - Wednesday, June 26 at 2:00 PM EST
The House Financial Services Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Stress Testing: What’s Inside the Black Box?” - Wednesday, June 26 at 2:00 PM EST
The House Financial Services National Security, Illicit Finance, and International Financial Institutions Subcommittee will hold a hearing on The Role of the Export-Import (Ex-Im) Bank of the United States Amid Intensifying Economic Competition with China - Thursday, June 27 at 10:00 AM EST
The House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee will hold a hearing on “Sector Down: Ensuring Critical Infrastructure Resilience” - Thursday, June 27 at 2:00 PM EST
Weekly Does of Trivia:Transition to Transistors… June 30, 1948, originally designed to create improvements to electromechanical relays and vacuum tubes in telephone switching equipment, Bell Labs held a press conference in New York to publicly demonstrate the first point-contact transistor. The transistor represents a significant advance in technology. As it is developed over the next few years, it will become the successor to the vacuum tube, the primary method of controlling electronic circuitry at the time. The use of transistors allows the development of the integrated circuit and microchips which kickstarted the rapid advance of electronic and computerized technology over the last 70+ years. Every industry that utilizes technology, from communications to computers to space travel to video games to media, owes a great deal to the development of the transistor.
