The House Republican Steering Committee is likely to recommend a member for the top GOP House Judiciary Committee seat by Thursday, lobbyists and officials told us. The race to succeed retiring Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., is between Reps. Doug Collins, Georgia; Steve Chabot, Ohio; and Jim Jordan, Ohio, with Collins the favorite (see 1810310025). The committee vote wraps up Thursday, a House aide said, and the recommendation is subject to Republican caucus ratification. Senate GOP leaders are eyeing a reduction in Senate Commerce Committee membership for the 116th Congress (see 1811280058).
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 FTC’s goal is to reach the “right result” as fast as possible for privacy probes, Chairman Joe Simons testified when pressed by lawmakers for a timeline on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica investigation. Simons wouldn't address specific cases during the first oversight hearing with all five new commissioners before the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee (see 1811230021). Hours earlier Tuesday, Facebook also faced heat at a multicountry hearing in U.K.'s House of Commons (see 1811270014).
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., will “most certainly” pursue anti-sex-trafficking-like legislation (see 1806290044) in 2019 holding online platforms accountable for illegal opioid/drug sales, he told us Monday. He originally raised the idea during a hearing with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg in September (see 1809050057). “They’re putting this junk on the market. They ought to be responsible for it,” Manchin said now. “If you look at all the platforms they’re using to sell this stuff on, don’t you think they should be held accountable? If they’re letting the sales come in illegally on their platforms?” Twitter and Facebook didn't comment.
Consumers have the right to sue for damages involving Apple’s alleged App Store monopoly (see 1811050033), liberal Supreme Court justices suggested Monday during oral argument in Apple v. Robert Pepper, docket 17-204. Conservative justices warned against allowing both developers and consumers to pursue potentially duplicative compensation. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh appeared to side with Pepper.
The Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee’s FTC oversight hearing Tuesday (see 1811200051) is an opportunity for lawmakers to show bipartisan interest in federal privacy legislation, industry lobbyists told us. With all five commissioners set to testify, it’s also a chance to find out where there's consensus and disagreement within the FTC (see 1811210031), they said.
Despite high-level consensus from the FTC, consumer groups and industry on the need for stronger agency enforcement authorities, it will be very challenging to reach agreement on specifics for a new data privacy bill, tech interests told us.
Congress will need to decide how much it’s willing to disrupt competition when crafting privacy legislation, FTC Commissioner Noah Phillips said in an interview for C-SPAN's The Communicators, to have been televised Saturday: While lawmakers want to protect consumers, they must keep in mind that regulatory schemes can harm competition and entrench incumbents. “That may be worth it,” Phillips said. “It may be that the problem we’re solving is such that we’re willing to take a little competition out of the market, but it’s something that we need to keep in mind.” Determining these “value judgments” should come first before deciding whether the FTC needs better privacy authority, he said. “That a firm is large under our law doesn’t necessarily make it a bad firm. It doesn’t make its conduct illegal,” he said. Sometimes, firms illegally protect their position in the market, and that’s something the FTC should monitor, he noted. Phillips warned against using antitrust law to address claims that platforms are favoring content based on ideology, noting he's not sure his agency has a role there.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen repeatedly cited the need for “relentless resilience” Friday, lauding launch of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. President Donald Trump signed legislation Friday restructuring the National Protection and Programs Directorate into CISA, a new DHS agency.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was “very aware” the Senate Intelligence Committee “has been relentless” in probing Facebook about foreign meddling, ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., told reporters Thursday. Warner was asked about a report suggesting Schumer, whose daughter works at Facebook, told Warner to tone down the probe, so Facebook could focus on GOP misinformation and other issues.
Moving privacy legislation will be “right at the top of necessary and achievable goals” in 2019, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., expected to chair the Senate Commerce Committee, told us. Whether a split Congress improves prospects for achieving compromise on a privacy bill is unclear, said lawmakers from both chambers this week.