The door is open for Congress to name conferees to negotiate its China package, after both chambers cleared procedural hurdles last week (see 2203230065). Senators expressed optimism Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., would achieve his goal of naming conferees to a formal negotiation before the end of the work period Friday. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., criticized the lack of return on provisions that would send billions to Intel, the largest American semiconductor manufacturer.
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
The Senate voted 51-50 along party lines Wednesday to discharge Alvaro Bedoya’s nomination to the FTC. Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote. Democrats are hopeful he can be confirmed to the commission before the Senate leaves for recess at the end of next week. The Senate appeared likely to delay a discharge vote on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn until at least next week, lawmakers and aides told us Wednesday.
Russia didn’t offer any “swap” or “concession” in exchange for the U.S. release of Russian cyber hacker Aleksei Burkov in August, FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran told the House Judiciary Committee at a hearing Tuesday. The division can’t comment on the wisdom of the release because it’s the Secret Service’s case, he said.
Autonomous vehicles aren’t possible without a steady supply of microchips, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., said Monday during a field hearing in Detroit on China package implications for the auto industry (see 2203230065).
There’s renewed focus on the need for Supreme Court interpretation of Communications Decency Act Section 230 after last week’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Ketanji Brown Jackson. Legislators and 230 watchers, in interviews, cited the likelihood of active litigation finding its way before the Supreme Court, which hasn't reviewed a Section 230 case.
Expect members of the Senate Commerce, Finance, Homeland Security and Foreign Affairs committees to be named as China bill conferees (see 2203220074), Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told reporters after Wednesday’s chips hearing.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo headed to Capitol Hill Tuesday to meet with lawmakers and continue pushing for Congress to pass its China package as quickly as possible. She met with the Senate Finance Committee and held a news conference with Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Mark Warner, D-Va. “We have to decrease our dependence on other countries, and the way to do that is make more chips in America,” she said. “We need Congress to get it to the president’s desk as quickly as possible.”
Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., expressed optimism Monday that Congress can begin conference negotiations on its China package before the end of the work period, as planned by Senate leadership (see 2203140059).
Bipartisan legislation introduced Friday would authorize the Library of Congress to designate mandatory technical measures for online platforms to combat piracy. Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee ranking member Thom Tillis, R-N.C., secured a long-sought-after Democratic partner in subcommittee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont (see 2109080077 and 2010050061).
The Senate will need to amend the House China package with upper chamber language and send it back to the lower chamber in order to begin conferencing the two measures, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Thursday. Calling it a procedural step, he noted a “small band of Republicans” is standing in the way of “quick action.”