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The House Meets to Debate Paycheck Protection Act Funds. But Why Can’t Congress Conduct Business Remotely?

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An image from video as Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., gestures to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., as they speak on the floor of the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday

April 23, 2020— Congress is “unwilling and unable, but mostly unwilling” to attempt remote voting, said Daniel Schuman, the policy director of Demand Progress, at a webinar hosted by the Cato Institute on Thursday.

With congressmen spread across the country practicing social distancing, the answer to the question of how they vote, pass laws, and help run the country has been elusive.

The question was in the air again on Thursday as members of Congress returned to Washington to debate and vote on the national legislature’s forth major coronavirus stimulus package – a $484 billion funding measure, with a $310 billion replenishment of funds for the Paycheck Protection Program. Other funding was for hospitals and COVID-19 testing.

The measure was the first time Congress has convened for traditional legislative debate since the passage of the U.S. CARES Act on March 27.

Congress passed the first coronavirus-focused measure on March 8, an $8.3 billion emergency spending bill. The second, which passed the House on March 12 and the Senate on March 18, spent about $500 billion on unemployment insurance.

The U.S. CARES Act was the third measure, and totaled more than $2 trillion. The package included $300 billion for the first round of the PPP, and which were already spent by last week.

The Paycheck Protection Program provides forgivable loans for businesses to retain their employees for 2.5 months.

During all of these legislative debates, once central question has been: Why can’t Congress conduct its business remotely?

Some claim that electronic voting is not safe enough, while others say that congressmen are too old to adapt to new technologies.

“The legislative branch, for the foreseeable future, is defunct,” said Schuman, an often-forthright critic of a highly inactive Congress.

Schuman dug into Congress’ unreadiness and reluctance to adapt.

“Congress historically is unwilling and unable to invest in itself,” he said. Apparently, several motions have been proposed in the past to create a nuclear-like contingency plan for electronic voting, but Congress has chosen not to pursue them.

He expressed his belief that congressmen have failed to act because they were afraid that their spending on electronic voting system would represent “frivolous spending” to their constituents. As a result, they use technology that Schuman described as “the oldest, jankiest stuff.”

Schuman contended that it would not be hard to implement an electronic voting system, but congressmen have a hard time “conceptualizing” that and furthermore don’t trust security.

Schuman contrasted these responses with the relative readiness of the U.K. parliamentary system, which recently announced that it will be conducting voting through Zoom. In addition, Schuman mentioned how New Jersey and Utah have adopted similar procedures for their state assemblies. “The problem isn’t the security but the people.”

Another problem of a lack of voting, besides a sluggish legislature, is that it cedes power to the executive branch, throwing the country’s system of checks and balances into disarray. “They are making the executive branch very powerful,” Schuman said, referring to the legislature’s relative absence from political affairs.

“This is really about political will. This is about the desire to do your job and to innovate,” Schuman said.

David Jelke was a Reporter for Broadband Breakfast. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in neuroscience. Growing up in Miami, he learned to speak Spanish during a study abroad semester in Peru. He is now teaching himself French on his iPhone.

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House of Representatives

Silicon Valley Rep. Anna Eshoo Will Not Seek Reelection

The lawmaker’s Silicon Valley seat will be open for the first time in decades.

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Screenshot of Rep. Eshoo at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on October 19.

WASHINGTON, November 22, 2023 – Representative Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., announced on Tuesday that she will not seek reelection in 2024.

Eshoo’s retirement will leave up for grabs California’s 16th Congressional District, which includes Silicon Valley and parts of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The San José Spotlight reported that multiple local Democrats are eyeing the solid blue seat

Her departure will also open up a spot on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, whose purview includes telecommunications, tech and energy policy, public health, and food and drug safety.

The 80-year-old legislator was the first woman to represent her district and spent over 30 years in Congress. She sponsored bills on tech policy, including Section 230 changes and efforts to accelerate broadband build outs.

Eshoo touted her long legislative career in a video announcing her retirement, including 66 bills signed into law over five presidential administrations. 

“For three decades, you’ve given me your trust,” she said of her constituents. “I’ve given every fiber of my being to live up to that sacred trust.”

The lawmaker joins more than 30 lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have also announced plans to step down after their current terms. She will serve through January 2025.

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Congress

House Committee Passes Three Bills to Reauthorize NTIA and Research Trans-Atlantic Cable and AI

Also discussed were three bills to address electric vehicle laws in Democratic states.

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Screenshot of House Energy and Commerce Committee

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2023 – The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed three bills to the House floor Thursday that will reauthorize the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, direct the agency to conduct a feasibility assessment of a trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable, and conduct a study on accountability measures for artificial intelligence.  

The NTIA Reauthorization Act of 2023 is a bipartisan effort to reauthorize the NTIA and modernize the mission of the agency to meet the needs of modern America. It would eliminate what it calls unnecessary reporting requirements and consolidate current reporting requirements into an annual report. 

It would also require the NTIA to develop common models, methodologies, and inputs to inform federal spectrum management decisions and establish an informing capability to support the agency’s mission to manage federal spectrum use. It would require the NITA to convene a working group to “establish voluntary receiver criteria, rating, or other measures in bands where federal entities are primary or co-primary users.” 

Spectrum refers to the airways used to transmit wireless signals and service Wi-Fi and mobile networks across the nation. Federal agencies currently have licenses for large portions of the bands, and industry leaders are calling for more spectrum to be allocated for commercial use. 

The law would put the NTIA under obligation to conduct cybersecurity efforts, including by submitting a report examining the cybersecurity of mobile service networks and connecting outreach and technical assistance to small communications network providers. 

Representative Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., applauded the bill for addressing critical cybersecurity concerns, claiming that not addressing these concerns would cause problems in supply chain and infrastructure across the nation.  

Mark Johnson, R-Ohio, and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., added support to the bill in its ability to provide the NTIA tools to better achieve its goals and improve its spectrum coordination with the Federal Communications Commission. The representatives agreed that spectrum is critical to American infrastructure. The motion was passed with a minor amendment on a 48-0 vote. 

The Artificial Intelligence Accountability Act also passed the committee with an amendment to define terms such as “trustworthy.” It would direct the NTIA to study accountability measures for artificial intelligence systems used by communications networks and hold public meetings to solicit feedback on the information that should be available to consumers who interact with AI systems.  

Committee members also passed a bipartisan bill, called the Diaspora Link Act, that would direct the NTIA to submit a report to Congress outlining the value, cost, and feasibility of building a trans-Atlantic fiber optic cable that would connect the continental United States with Ghana and Nigeria by way of the U.S. Virgin Islands in order to “enhance the national security of the United States.” 

Clean energy bills

Also addressed were three laws that address clean energy provisions. The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act would amend the Clean Air Act to include a requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency evaluates a state’s waiver for vehicle emissions standards to ensure it does not “directly or indirectly limit the sale or use of new motor vehicles with an internal combustion engine.” 

This bill addresses recent California legislation that seeks to require all new cars sold in 2035 and beyond are zero-emission vehicles, which includes electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid EVs.  

“We need to be honest with the American people about how forcing them to switch to electric vehicles plays right into China’s scheme to control our automotive future. China already controls access to critical minerals necessary for EVs,” said Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. China controls 76 percent of global battery cell production capacity for EVs and recently outpaced Japan in the largest exporter of new motor vehicles in the world, she said.  

Democrats strongly opposed the motion, claiming that “while Democrats are fighting [climate change] with investments to reduce pollution and grow our economy, Republicans are fighting to take away those investments and reverse our progress,” said Ranking Member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.  

Amendments to remove the section of the bill that would affect existing waivers and delay the effective date until certification that the bill would not cause disproportionate harm to American communities were not agreed to, with votes split on party lines, 27-20. The bill was passed on a 26-22 vote. 

Also considered was the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act that would amend previous law to prevent any regulations that mandate the use of any specific technology or resulting in the limited availability of new motor vehicles based on that vehicle’s engine type.  

The No Fuels Credits for Batteries Act would clarify that the EPA “is not authorized to use credits for electricity generated from renewable fuel for purposes of the Renewable Fuel Standard.” Both bills were passed along party lines. 

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House of Representatives

Telecom, Online Marketplace Consumer Protection Bills Pass House Committee

Among the bills sent to the House, the committee passed two on telecom and one on consumer safety.

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Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois

WASHINGTON, November 17, 2021 – The House Committee on Energy and Commerce passed several bills Wednesday, including two on telecom policy and one meant to address consumer safety when using online retailers.

H.R. 1218, the “Data Mapping to Save Moms’ Lives Act,” H.R. 2501, the “Spectrum Coordination Act,” and H.R. 5502, the “Integrity, Notification, and Fairness in Online Retail Marketplaces for Consumers Act” were all passed unopposed and without amendments.

H.R. 1218 is a bill intended to target broadband resources to areas where “telehealth may be useful in the monitoring and care of pregnant women,” bill co-sponsor Rep. G. K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, said during the hearing, adding “it is a moral imperative to address the maternal mortality crisis in the United States.” The bill’s other sponsors are Reps. Lisa Rochester, D-Delaware, and Gus Bilirakis, R-Florida.

“To effectively deploy 21st Century resources to address the shocking rates of maternal mortality, the nation must first identify which communities lack adequate Internet access and have high maternal mortality rates. That is exactly what this bill seeks to do,” said Rochester.

H.R. 2501, which is sponsored by Bilirakis, requires the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – an agency of the Commerce Department – and the Federal Communications Commission to update the memorandum of understanding on spectrum coordination, to ensure that spectrum is shared efficiently, and that a process is created to better resolve frequency allocation disputes.

H.R. 5502, co-sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D- Illinois, takes aim at online retailers that do not take responsibility for the products that third-party groups sell on their marketplace. Legislators supporting this legislation asserted that this has allowed bad actors to sell unsafe, counterfeit, or otherwise fraudulent goods on common marketplaces like Amazon and Etsy.

“What we’re saying now is very simply that online marketplaces will have to verify that the identity of their higher volume sellers, so they have to take some responsibility,” said Schakowsky. “It’s not just about counterfeiters, it’s not just about defrauding – we are talking about danger every year around this time.”

“This legislation is really going to help the consumers and legitimate businesses that are selling products and becoming victims themselves.”

Amazon has been on the wrong end of state court rulings recently that have made it liable for defective products. Experts on a Information Technology and Innovation Foundation event in May remarked that this could open the floodgates for these types of lawsuits, a contrast to when Section 230 liability protections for platforms have historically been used as strong defenses for these platforms.

Now that these bills have passed their committee, they will be sent to the House to be considered. Should they successfully be passed in the House, they will be sent to the Senate and undergo a similar procedure; if the bills are successfully passed in both the House and Senate, they will then be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk, where he can decide whether to sign them into law.

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