Week of March 6, 2023
The early Spring weather that has settled in your Nation’s Capitol may have bumped up the timeline for the annual spectacle of the beautiful blooming of the Japanese cherry blossom trees, and maybe it has even served to kick start the Federal budget process.
This Thursday, President Biden will unveil his Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal this Thursday at an event in Philadelphia. While still behind the statutory schedule for the budget process, any movement on the budget is potentially more relevant this year as it will likely play a key role in how the White House and Congress negotiate the debt ceiling later this year.Not to be outdone by that pending fiscal crisis, congressional China hawks continued their drumbeat last week with a series of committee actions. Most notably, the new House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party (aka Select Committee on China) held its first hearing on Tuesday evening to examine the CCP’s threat to the U.S., as well as strategic competition concerns regarding ideology, technology, economics, and military. The House Foreign Affairs Committee followed up on that by reporting our legislation that would allow the President to ban TikTok.
What We’re Watching:
Big Week for Content Moderation: Section 230 liability protections will face another big week following the Supreme Court’s recent oral arguments on two potentially monumental cases. Following arguments in Gonzalez v. Google, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy will hold a hearing to review the judges’ reactions to the case, and how Congress should move forward if the duty to reform Section 230 lies with the legislative branch. Several pieces of legislation are likely to be discussed such as the PACT Act, EARN IT Act, and Kids Online Safety Act. And today, regulators, industry leaders, stakeholders, and academic experts gather for the annual State of the Net Conference to discuss all things relating to internet platforms, including several panels on Section 230 concerns. The scrutiny on big tech continues in Senate Judiciary as well as the Antitrust Subcommittee analyzes competition in digital platforms this week.
Congress Digs into Digital Assets: Congress is also focusing its attention on the current crypto regulatory environment as the House Financial Services Committee’s new Digital Assets Subcommittee gears up for its first hearing. The hearing will mainly focus on the Administration’s regulatory policies aimed at crypto oversight, often deemed “Operation Choke Point 2.0.” On the Senate side, the Senate Environment Committee noticed a hearing for Tuesday to review the environmental impacts of crypto-mining. The Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee will look to witnesses for their take on the recently reintroduced Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act, which would require crypto miners to disclose their emissions and the Environmental Protection Agency to report on the effects of crypto mining. Additionally, the Senate Agriculture Committee will hear from CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam, likely on the agency’s next moves on crypto regulations. The full House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Banking Committee will also hear from Fed Chair Jerome Powell for the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report. Digital assets are likely to be brought up in Member questions in light of recent discussions on central bank digital currencies. These hearings will lay the groundwork for any legislative efforts related to digital assets, particularly in the House where Chairman McHenry has publicly expressed his intention to force legislative action on this subject.
Cybersecurity Remains a Hot Topic: It may not be a headline-grabbing topic (until it is); but our nation’s cyber posture remains a priority for key policymakers. The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have multiple hearings set for this week that will focus on America’s cyber readiness. Last week, the Administration released its long-awaited National Cybersecurity Strategy, outlining priorities to enhance the cybersecurity of the nation. The strategy offers a path to resilience designed around increased long-term investment in cybersecurity infrastructure as well as rebalancing the onus of cybersecurity away from the end user suggesting that they “bear too great a burden for mitigating cyber risks.” Designed by the Office of the National Cyber Director, the roadmap centers on five pillars of collaboration, many of which the Office has suggested are already being implemented: defending critical infrastructure, disrupting and dismantling threat actors, shaping market forces to drive security and resilience, investment in cybersecurity for resilience, continuing global collaboration with allied partners.
What’s Happening This Week:
Tech Hearings
Senate Armed Services hearing to examine posture of U.S. Cyber Command - Tuesday, March 7 at 9:30 AM ET
Senate Banking Committee hearing on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report - Tuesday, March 7 at 10:00 AM ET
Senate Environment Committee hearing on crypto-mining environmental impacts - Tuesday, March 7 at 2:30 PM ET
Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on competition in digital platforms - Tuesday, March 7 at 3:00 PM ET
Senate HSGAC hearing on AI - Wednesday, March 8 at 10:00 AM ET
Senate Agriculture hearing on the CFTC - Wednesday, March 8 at 10:00 AM ET
House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on IP concerns with China - Wednesday, March 8 at 10:00 AM ET
House Financial Services hearing on the Semiannual Monetary Policy Report - Wednesday, March 8 at 10:00 AM ET
Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Gonzalez v. Google - Wednesday, March 8 at 2:00 PM ET
House Oversight Subcommittee hearing on advances in AI - Wednesday, March 8 at 2:00 PM ET
House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence hearing on examining world wide threats - Thursday, March 9 at 10:00 AM ET
House Financial Services Subcommittee hearing on digital assets - Thursday, March 9 at 2:00 PM ET
Tech Events
State of the Net - Monday, March 6 at 8:00 AM ET
Washington Post Live - "U.S.-China Tensions" - Monday, March 6 at 11:00 AM ET
The Government Executive Media Group - "Modern and Flexible Cybersecurity: A Dispatch from the Rocky Mountain Cyberspace Symposium," with top Defense Department officials on "the latest DOD guidance around Zero Trust" - Monday, March 6 at 1:00 PM ET
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation - "Will ChatGPT Forever Change Education?" - Tuesday, March 7 at 11:00 AM ET
Commerce Department; National Institute of Standards and Technology - meeting of the Internet of Things Advisory Board on establishing consensus on the outline of the IoT Advisory Board's report and data gathering framework - Tuesday, March 7 at 11:00 AM ET
Washington Post Live - "China, Russia, and Bipartisanship" - Tuesday, March 7 at 11:00 AM ET
The Intelligence and National Security Alliance - "Emerging Technologies" - Wednesday, March 8 at 9:00 AM ET
The Peterson Institute for International Economics - “Fed Vice Chair Michael S. Barr on cryptocurrencies” - Thursday, March 9 at 10:00 AM ET
The Cato Institute - "Exploring the Risks of Central Bank Digital Currencies" - Thursday, March 9 at 1:00 PM ET
What’s Interesting This Week:
Can you hear me now? On March 10, 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the fateful call to his assistant, Mr. Watson, which is considered the first phone call in history: “Mr. Watson, come here I want to see you.”
