Week of December 11, 2023
Today marks just five days remaining in the legislative calendar for 2023, and Congress sure has a lot on its plate to wrap up. Legislators in both chambers could postpone recess another week through December 22, but that will all depend on their work this week.
Prior to heading home for the holidays, Members will hopefully vote on the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which was finalized last week. The Senate is up first for a vote as soon as Wednesday with the House to follow. The negotiated bill is filled with provisions around artificial intelligence priorities, cybersecurity, quantum research initiatives, as well as providing an extension to FISA Section 702, which is already stirring tensions from Republican Members who are seeking separate legislation on the surveillance program. More on that below.
Congress this week has a packed scheduled as Members make a last minute push to hold hearings on AI. The House Homeland Security Cybersecurity Subcommittee is looking at CISA’s role in securing AI for DHS, House Foreign Affairs will take another look at BIS’s export controls on emerging tech, and Senate Judiciary will be discussing algorithmic impacts on competition. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will also be scrutinizing agency implementation of the White House AI executive order on Wednesday.
What We’re Watching:
House E&C Rounds Out AI Series With Full Committee Hearing: The House Energy and Commerce Committee is rounding out their AI hearing series this week with a full Committee hearing to examine agency implementation of the recent White House executive order (EO) on AI. With over 150 agency directives in the EO, implementation and timing have been primary areas of concerns. On Wednesday, DOE, HHS, and Commerce will have the opportunity to lay out how they intend to execute these tasks. The Committee has held several industry-specific hearings on AI at the subcommittee level, and the series is now coming to fruition. The subcommittee hearings have served to reinforce the need for a national data privacy standard, especially as it relates to AI training data sets. Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) has also pressed the need for the Administration to work with Congress to address AI regulations, so as not to “hamper innovation.” The Committee’s work on AI will continue into next year as both chambers consider how to mitigate risks while harnessing the benefits of the technology.
FISA Reauthorization Updates: Two House committees last week passed two bills to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but with very different stipulations. The House Judiciary Committee nearly unanimously passed legislation that would provide significant reforms to Section 702, including requiring a warrant to query the 702 database for U.S. persons. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence also passed legislation that reauthorizes the bill with fewer stipulations, and has garnered favor from national security hawks over Judiciary’s legislation. The House Rules Committee will today markup both pieces of legislation, teeing up a fight on the floor on which bill lawmakers support. The NDAA provides FISA with a four month-extension to buy time for Congress to act, but it is worth mentioning that the Biden Administration has not demonstrated support for either bill.
Senator Hawley’s AI Section 230 Clash: Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) this week is said to be working to hotline his legislation, the No Section 230 Immunity for AI Act, which would explicitly exempt generative AI tools from receiving Section 230 protections. While the legislation could have sweeping impacts for consumer-facing generative AI models, Hawley said that the move “is a modest little test case” to see how Senators respond to AI legislation on the floor. Hawley has been vocal on his impatience with the current pace of work on AI guardrails, suggesting that Senate Majority Leader Schumer’s AI Insight Forums have “led to nowhere.” It is unclear what day he may try to hotline the bill and if there will be an objection on the floor.
What’s Happening This Week:
Tech Hearings
House Homeland Cyber Subcommittee Hearing on CISA AI EO - Tuesday, December 12 at 10:00 AM ET
House Foreign Affairs Oversight Subcommittee hearing on BIS and Export Controls - Tuesday, December 12 at 2:00 PM ET
House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on copyright - Wednesday, December 13 at 10:00 AM ET
House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding a hearing on federal agency AI use - Wednesday, December 13 at 10:00 AM ET
Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee hearing on algorithms and competition - Wednesday, December 13 at 3:00 PM ET
Senate HSGAC hearing on the Cyber Safety Review Board - Thursday, December 14 at 10:00 AM ET
Tech Events
The Hudson Institute - "Artificial Intelligence and Society: The Beautiful Promise and the Dystopian Threat" - Wednesday, December 13 at 12:00 PM ET
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation - "U.S. v. Google: Implications of a Landmark Trial" - Wednesday, December 13 at 11:00 AM ET
The Atlantic Council - "Debating the dollar: Who wants it, who doesn't, and what comes next” - Tuesday, December 12 at 9:30 AM ET
The Brookings Institution and the Center for New Democratic Processes - "Assembling public perspectives on AI" - Wednesday, December 13 at 1:00 PM ET
The Heritage Foundation - "AI & Human Flourishing: A Pipe Dream" - Tuesday, December 12 at 10:30 AM ET
Washington Post Live - "Investing in Scientific and Technological Innovation" - Tuesday, December 12 at 2:00 PM ET
The Brookings Institution - "The importance of financial data collection and standardization" - Thursday, December 14 at 9:00 AM ET
The Center for Strategic and International Studies - "the role of intellectual property in technological innovation and geopolitical competition today" - Wednesday, December 13 at 3:00 PM ET
The National Academy of Public Administration and the Government Executive Media Group - “Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Cybersecurity" - Monday, December 11 at 11:00 AM ET
The United States Energy Association - "The Emerging Cyber Threats to Industrial Control Systems - Supply Chain Cybersecurity Threats" - Thursday, December 14 at 12:00 AM ET
Washington Post Live - "Cybersecurity in the Cloud and Artificial Intelligence Era" - Wednesday, December 13 at 12:00 PM ET
The Middle East Institute - "The Middle East and Navigating the U.S.-China Tech Cold War" - Thursday, December 14 at 10:00 AM ET
What’s Interesting This Week:
Must’ve Gone to Spam….On December 16, 2003, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 was signed into United States law. Passed in an attempt to control the growing deluge of junk e-mail, the law’s effectiveness is dubious at best, especially considering political spam is exempt from the law.
