When it comes to antitrust and technology, there’s a shortage of trust on Capitol Hill, even as pressure to act continues to mount. And Senate Democrats trust Speaker McCarthy to do one thing: protect American-made monopolies.
Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a Democrat, said: “I think the sentiment is there, but we have had a hard time convincing Republicans to support legislation in this area. This.
House Republicans may see common ground with Biden’s new hardline approach to technology, but this isn’t congressional kumbaya — and the rest of Biden’s State of the Union vision, at least. especially for the first time, has been described by Republicans as a laundry list of reasons to never work with Biden, no matter what their common tech nemesis. “What we see tonight is Joe Biden talking about unity in one breath, followed by criticism and beatings of Republicans,” said Republican Congresswoman Kat Cammack of Florida. “To me, it just shows that he’s not serious about getting the job done for the good of the American people.”
After dismissing much of the president’s agenda, Cammack admitted there was a bright spot. She called Biden’s stern message to Silicon Valley “encouraging.”
“We had a really serious problem where our personal data was collected without a warrant, sold without our permission, and it was time for us to pay,” Cammack said. return people’s data and privacy to them”. “So I was encouraged to hear that, but it’s a long way from now to then.”
There is certainly a long road ahead, but House members are only granted short, two-year terms of service, and the sprint to 2024 has already begun. Splendid attire and circumstances were the dress code last night, even if some people have a different memo. But now the focus shifts to legislation — and especially on the eve of the presidential election, which means bombing and pointing.
Democrats as well as Republicans have failed to set up hedges to protect the funding class in Silicon Valley in recent years, even as both sides continue to criticize the tech sector in which the tech giants have failed to secure funding. Washington policymakers declined to adjust, while US data is are mined, shared with law enforcement, or sold to other third parties. Lively atmosphere and deflated rhetoric are not an option for this 118order Congress, according to Cammack.
“Truth be told, I don’t think we have a choice,” Cammack said.
“We have a divided Congress and House Republicans are very serious about data protection for consumers, for Americans, and I think Democrats are too. The trick is to assemble a bill that not only survives Congress but avoids a veto when it gets to his desk. So that will be where the rubber meets the road.”
Tech politics is different from other hot topics. They are simultaneously bipartisan—everyone has one or three disagreements with Big Tech—but they are also stubbornly stuck in Washington’s rigid partisan stereotypes. That’s why the rhetoric only goes so far, even when the distrust seems endless. Therefore, the details are often diabolical.
“These are tough conversations. We all value privacy. We all want to protect our children,” said Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, speaking on behalf of many of his fellow Republicans. “But we also like the freedom of entrepreneurship. We love innovation. I always thought it was better to break down barriers to competitors than to regulate incumbents, so to speak, in business.”
Senators tend to be slightly older than their counterparts in the House of Representatives (, Theo Pew Research, which is 7.4 years older on average, if we want to be precise). In recent years, the 80-year-olds of the room have proven themselves to be butt of Silicon Valley jokesbut times are changing—at the speed of the Senate.
All five Republicans who won Senate seats in November are bullish on Big Tech. While it’s unclear how quickly they will — or succeed — in their efforts to educate Republican elders against regulation, Silicon Valley congressional critics say Biden was wise to focus on protecting children’s private data. It’s a message that resonates far and wide, even on Speaker McCarthy’s Capitol Hill.
“But the matter of targeting our children with certain messages, using technology to essentially collect data and persuading or exploiting their habits, it’s really quite different,” says Cramer. worrying in this modern age. “I think a lot of us traditionalists struggle a bit with our basic individualism, with some protections.”
