With help from Julia Arciga and Mark Scott
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— Privacy push: The Senate Commerce Committee holds its first sweeping consumer privacy hearing today, which will likely ramp up calls for a comprehensive federal data privacy law.
— The Amazon angle: House Judiciary lawmakers are marking up a slate of bills this morning, including two that would have an impact on the e-commerce giant.
— Reality check: The first meeting of the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council is here, but it may be just a prelude to its next meeting in the spring.
IT’S WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 29. WELCOME TO MORNING TECH. I’m your host, Benjamin Din. The Elon Musk-Jeff Bezos rivalry continues to heat up. What will happen next? Any guesses?
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WE JUST WANT SOME PRIVACY — Lawmakers will consider a proposal today to set up a new privacy bureau and will talk through the need for a comprehensive federal privacy law.
Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) will back the idea of a privacy and data security bureau at the FTC, something she called for in legislation she introduced in 2019. That idea is gaining steam among Democrats in the House, who hope to include $1 billion for it as part of their multitrillion-dollar social spending package.
— Differing approaches to the FTC: Expect some partisan tension over the FTC’s role in all of this. Earlier this month, a group of Democratic senators called on the agency to begin a rulemaking process for consumer privacy regulations, which they said should be done in parallel with congressional efforts to enact privacy laws.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) will say this morning that the FTC’s focus should be on the enforcement side. “Only Congress can develop longstanding data protections for consumers that meaningfully safeguard their personal information,” the ranking member will say, per his prepared remarks. “Anything short of congressional action would create significant regulatory uncertainty for businesses and confuse consumers about the scope and durability of their privacy rights.”
— Challenges remain: Although lawmakers agree on the need for a federal privacy law, the same sticking points remain: whether a federal privacy law should preempt state-level measures, and whether individuals can sue companies for privacy violations. The tech industry argues that allowing the current patchwork of state-dictated privacy laws to endure would cause confusion for consumers and harm smaller businesses that lack the resources to comply with multiple sets of state laws. “The need for a national privacy law has never been greater,” said Linda Moore, CEO of TechNet, which counts Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google as members.
— Looking ahead: Today’s hearing is the first in a series on privacy, with a second hearing expected next week on data security. Cantwell also wants to hear from FTC Chair Lina Khan next month on how her agency would implement a privacy bureau, according to committee staff.
WELCOME TO THE AMAZON MARKUP — It’s gearing up to be Amazon Week at the House Judiciary Committee, with today’s markup following an antitrust hearing that devoted a big portion to the e-commerce giant (more on that below). Here are two pieces of legislation to know for this morning:
— Fighting online dupes: Lawmakers will consider the SHOP SAFE Act, a bipartisan effort to require e-commerce platforms like Amazon to take more responsibility in policing counterfeit goods that are sold on their sites, such as by verifying the identity, location and contact information of sellers, as well as banning repeat offenders. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
Amazon spokesperson Alex Haurek said the company was committed to combating counterfeit goods and had invested “significant resources” in doing so. “We recognize that the intent of the SHOP SAFE Act is to ensure that consumers are protected from counterfeit products and we look forward to working with Congress to achieve that goal,” he said in a statement.
— Marijuana mitigation: The committee will also take up the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, aimed at legalizing marijuana at the federal level and clearing the criminal records of people with related drug convictions. The bill passed the House last Congress but died in the Senate, where it was sponsored by then-California Sen. Kamala Harris.
Amazon announced in June that it supported the bill and would remove cannabis from the company’s pre-employment drug screening process. It reaffirmed that commitment last week and laid out further steps it was taking to support federal legalization. One of the reasons behind the push: Amazon has gone on a pandemic hiring spree, and the company said “eliminating pre-employment testing for cannabis allows us to expand our applicant pool.”
GAETZ SAYS ANTITRUST PACKAGE HAS STALLED — During Tuesday’s House Judiciary subcommittee hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he was “deeply disappointed” that the committee’s antitrust package hasn’t been called to the House floor for a vote despite the fact that it could solve labor concerns surrounding tech giants like Amazon.
“If they were coming to the floor, they would have been on the floor in prior weeks,” he said. “Now, we sit here with this great work likely extinguished in its tracks for one of these unfortunate reasons” — reasons like lobbyists and tech industry CEOs making rounds on the Hill.
— Using the weed model: Gaetz said the chamber should take the marijuana legalization movement’s approach to the issue and make gradual progress “year after year,” despite repeated failed votes.
“Even if these tech bills can’t pass, I would encourage you to talk to the speaker and put them up for a vote. … It could at least give us a measuring tool to be able to come back and persuade our other members,” he told subcommittee Chair David Cicilline (D-R.I.). Cicilline, a main sponsor of the package, said he’s committed to bringing the bills to the floor “for a vote that prevails.”
LET’S GET IT STARTED — Officials from the U.S. and the EU are gathering today in Pittsburgh for the inaugural meeting of the transatlantic Trade and Technology Council to try to reset their relationship post-Trump. The two sides are expected to release a declaration from the meeting this evening.
But even before the summit gets underway, focus is already turning to the next meeting, to be held next spring and most likely in France. This shift of attention highlights what many EU and U.S. officials have been foreshadowing for days: Don’t expect too much from this inaugural get-together.
— It didn’t start this way: Early drafts of the council’s final communiqué had tough language around online gatekeepers, but that’s gone now. Instead, the two sides will focus on less sensitive topics, like export screening and what to do about artificial intelligence, according to the latest draft declaration seen by POLITICO.
— Let’s do this again: Officials stress that despite a recent Franco-American spat over submarines, which almost prevented today’s TTC meeting, the U.S.’ transatlantic ties remain strong. But this first meeting will focus on getting the council’s 10 working groups underway. Expect more significant action at the next meeting in early 2022 where more long-term discussions about bringing chip manufacturing closer to home and how to govern online platforms, among other things, will take center stage.
LET’S TALK ABOUT KHAN — The FTC chair has shaken up the agency in her first 100 days, much to the joy of her fellow progressives. But that’s also caused grumblings, our antitrust guru Leah reports for Pros. (Leah also joined POLITICO Dispatch this morning.) One point of contention: whether the FTC’s new open meetings policy promotes public access or is just transparency theater. Leah and John break that down for Pros in a look at how the FTC and FCC compare.
WELCOME TO THE BIG LEAGUES — The Congressional Baseball Game is making its debut tonight on FS1 at 7:05 p.m. The House Energy and Commerce communications and technology panel will be out in full force, with five of its members playing in the annual Democrats vs. Republicans match.
Playing for the Democrats: coach Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, who chairs the panel; Tony Cardenas of California; and Marc Veasey of Texas. And representing the Republicans: Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Bill Johnson of Ohio.
Dan Correa, director of the Day One Project, has been selected as CEO of the Federation of American Scientists. He is currently acting president and was an assistant director for innovation policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. … Gabriela Zanfir-Fortuna has been named VP of global privacy at the Future of Privacy Forum. … Sarah Drory is now press secretary for Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). She previously was press assistant for Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.).
Safiya Noble has been awarded a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant for ”highlighting the ways digital technologies and internet architectures magnify racism, sexism, and harmful stereotypes.”
The Center for Policing Equity is launching Justice Navigator, a tool that provides access to public safety data, policy insights and analyses. The platform was developed in partnership with Google.org. … Internet Works, a tech coalition that includes Reddit, Snap, Etsy and Dropbox and advocates protecting Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, has launched a five-question quiz aimed at highlighting the different considerations that go into content moderation.
Follow-up: “Facebook’s Effort to Attract Preteens Goes Beyond Instagram Kids, Documents Show,” via WSJ.
Op-ed: “Instagram Is Adult Entertainment,” via NYT Opinion.
Raising questions: “FTC Chair Khan Unveils Her Plans for the Agency…But Leaves a Lot Unsaid,” Jessica Rich, former director of the agency’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, writes for Ad Law Access.
FCC’s broadband challenge: “No single dataset is sufficient for developing a fabric of all locations in the U.S. where broadband could be deployed,” according to a Government Accountability Office report.
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SEE YOU TOMORROW!