Week of November 28, 2022
Here’s hoping you and yours had a relaxing and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday! This year’s smorgasbord of holiday weekend sports activity also served as the quadrennial reminder of football’s general superiority. That said, it seems very likely that a significant number of normal workday activities will be mysteriously canceled tomorrow during the 2:00 pm hour when the United States takes on Iran in the World Cup.Congress returns to the same “to do” list that they left prior to the holiday recess, but a shorter amount of time to get it done. The most immediate item to tackle is federal funding, which expires with the current Continuing Resolution (CR) on December 16. It is still possible that an Omnibus Appropriations Bill gets finalized, though at this rate that will likely require another short (one week) CR in order to get the bill processed.The annual defense authorization act (NDAA), is also awaiting the green light from leadership to close out the negotiations and move to the floor before the end of the year. While those negotiations are ongoing, the Senate is poised to pass legislation that codifies same-sex marriage. This bill would then need to be passed by the House before it can be signed into law by President Biden.Finally, House Democrats will also hold their leadership elections this week, and for the first time in two decades Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will no longer be on the ballot. Democrats are expected to elect Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) as the next Democratic Leader. The Republican side of the aisle will be focused on forming its Steering Committee, which is utilized to select committee chairs as well as rank-and-file committee members.
What We’re Watching:
FTX Hearings Loom: Following the recent FTX collapse, Congress not only wants answers from former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, but also from federal regulators on how to best move forward to prevent repeat crypto collapses. Several congressional committees say they intend to hold hearings on the matter. House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Ranking Member Patrick McHenry (R-NC) jointly announced that they would also hold a hearing in December. Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown (D-OH) followed suit and announced he is considering holding a hearing on the same topic. The Senate Agriculture Committee is set to hear from CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam and examine the “lessons learned” from the collapse. While this flurry of hearings reflects a sense of urgency from policymakers to implement a regulatory framework for digital assets, the actual legislative path forward remains unclear and the looming close of the 117th Congress makes it likely that this debate will continue into next year.
Ticketmaster’s Karmic Antitrust Hearing: After the fallout from the disastrous sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s latest concert tour, Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chairwoman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, announced she will have a hearing on Live Nation and Ticketmaster before the year’s end. The Taylor Swift saga seems to have tipped the scales of scrutiny as the hearing will focus on Live Nation and Ticketmaster, but the larger debate over tech focused antitrust legislation, such as Klobuchar’s American Innovation and Choice Online Act and the Open Apps Market Act, will certainly be part of the discussion. Those bills and others remain long shots to get completed this year.
The Privacy Debate Goes On: Although the deadline for the first round of public comments on the FTC’s proposed rulemaking on creating a federal data privacy framework has passed, the agency has a long road of work ahead. FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan previously noted that she would reconsider the Agency’s rulemaking if Congress were to pass comprehensive data privacy legislation, but so far that looks unlikely. While the American Data Privacy Protection Act passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee earlier this year, it has a very slim chance of receiving final passage before the end of this Congress. Privacy reform can join the list of politically heavy lifts that will confront the incoming Republican House majority in 2023.
What’s Happening This Week:
Tech Hearings
Tech Events
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation - "How Updating a Century-Old Trade Law Could Limit China's Ability to Profit From Unfair Trade Practices" - Monday, November 28 at 12:00 PM ET
The Institute of World Politics - "China is Preparing for War, America Is Not" - Tuesday, November 29 at 4:30 PM ET
New America - "The Future of Global Digital Governance" - Tuesday, November 29 at 4:30 PM ET
The Government Executive Media Group's Federal Computer Week - "Cyber Strategies for 2023 and Beyond" - Wednesday, November 30 at 8:30 AM ET
The Brookings Institution - "Opportunities and challenges of critical technology standards in the Asia Pacific" - Thursday, December 1 at 8:00 PM ET
What’s Interesting This Week:
Rosa Parks Makes History…. In Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, which was in violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was organized by Martin Luther King, Jr., followed Park’s historic act of civil disobedience.
