The Senate Commerce Committee advanced three FTC nominees to the Senate floor Wednesday via voice vote. Republican nominees Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak and FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter were advanced after a brief committee discussion during markup (see 2310120018). Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., listed the credentials of all three and said Slaughter has proven herself a strong consumer advocate. Ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said all three are “well-qualified.” Bipartisanship has been a “defining characteristic” at the FTC, but Chair Lina Khan “abandoned that legacy in favor of a partisan, legally suspect agenda that has devastated employee morale in the process,” said Cruz. Holyoak and Ferguson will hopefully be a check on the majority’s agenda, said Cruz. He noted the committee hasn’t held an FTC oversight hearing during Khan’s tenure, which is “unacceptable.” The FTC continues to take an “unreasonably expansive view of its authorities under Chair Khan’s leadership that this committee has an obligation to ask her about,” he said. Khan in a statement Thursday congratulated all three nominees for the unanimous decision. “The FTC operates best at full strength, and I look forward to their swift approval by the full Senate,” she said. Cruz said he’s “hopeful” the FTC will host an oversight hearing soon, noting he had extensive conversations with Cantwell about it: As President Ronald “Reagan famously said, trust but verify.” Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said it’s a concerted goal to get the nominees confirmed swiftly: “It depends on the schedule and what happens on the floor.”

Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz of Texas and two other panel Republicans filed the Eyes on the Board Act Wednesday in a bid to limit children's access to social media at school by requiring schools receiving federal E-rate and emergency connectivity fund money to ban access to platforms on subsidized services, devices and networks. The GOP senators filed the bill ahead of expected FCC approval Thursday of a declaratory ruling allowing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2310170054). Cruz and House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., first opposed the proposal in July (see 2307310063). The legislation would require schools receiving ECF and E-rate funding to adopt a screen time policy, similar to what the Children’s Internet Protection Act already requires. It would direct the FCC to create a database of schools’ internet safety policies. “Addictive and distracting social media apps are inviting every evil force on the planet into kids’ classrooms, homes, and minds by giving those who want to abuse or harm children direct access to communicate with them online,” Cruz said: “The very least we can do is restrict access to social media at school so taxpayer subsidies aren’t complicit in harming our children.” Sens. Ted Budd of North Carolina and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia were the bill’s other co-sponsors. Senate Commerce Republicans cited support from the American College of Pediatricians, America First Policy Institute and other groups.

The Senate Communications Subcommittee rescheduled an anti-robocall hearing for Oct. 24, the Commerce Committee said Tuesday. The hearing will “examine how robocallers are evading enforcement, consider public-private efforts to combat illegal robocalls and investigate what next steps are needed to protect Americans from fraudulent and illegal text messages and calls,” Senate Commerce said. The panel postponed the hearing, originally planned for Oct. 3, amid reshuffling to accommodate senators who wanted to attend the funeral for former Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. USTelecom Vice President-Policy and Advocacy Josh Bercu and YouMail Chief Technology Officer Mike Rudolph are among those set to testify. Also on the witness list: Wiley’s Megan Brown on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Consumer Law Center Senior Attorney Margot Saunders. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

The prospects that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Republicans’ nominee for speaker (see 2310130071), would prevail in his bid to lead the chamber remained in doubt Tuesday, prolonging the weekslong halt of the chamber’s agenda. Jordan got only 200 of the 220 present GOP members’ votes on the floor. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York got all 212 Democrats’ votes, and the other 20 Republicans voted for McCarthy, Majority Leader Steve Scalese of Louisiana or five other GOP members. Further voting rounds were scheduled for early evening.

USTelecom CEO Jonathan Spalter urged the House and Senate intelligence committees' leaders Monday to “pay special attention to the FCC’s mission creep into the cybersecurity space” because of the draft net neutrality NPRM reclassifying broadband as a Communications Act Title II service (see 2309280084). Further FCC involvement in cybersecurity “will lead to confusion and conflicts over which committee and agency has jurisdiction in specific cyber-related matters,” Spalter said in a letter to Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., House Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, and the panels’ ranking members. “This will create legal and regulatory uncertainty, hampering effective national security oversight and cooperation. It could also lead to redundancy and fragmentation of efforts, making it harder to coordinate and implement a cohesive security strategy and respond quickly to emerging threats.” There’s “nothing in the Communications Act or any other statute that gives the FCC general authority to impose prescriptive cybersecurity regulations on ISPs,” Spalter said.

Alphabet, Meta, X and TikTok need to brief the House Commerce Committee about content moderation policies involving illegal content posted by Hamas, Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., wrote the companies Thursday. She demanded staff briefings by Oct. 20. The platforms “must provide transparency” about how they’re “monitoring and removing illegal content posted by Hamas for recruitment, to spread propaganda, to livestream murders and the torture of hostages,” she said. New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sent similar letters to the four companies, as well as to Reddit and Rumble. “These platforms have a responsibility to keep their users safe and prohibit the spread of violent rhetoric that puts vulnerable groups in danger,” she said. Reddit has strict policies against content that “encourages, glorifies, incites, or calls for violence or physical harm,” including content from terrorist groups, the company said in a statement Friday: “Our experienced safety teams are closely monitoring the situation and taking action against anything that violates these policies." The other companies didn’t comment.

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., should recuse his tech industry-linked chief of staff from antitrust matters involving Amazon and Apple, the Revolving Door Project wrote Correa’s office last week. The organization accused Correa of being “unduly influenced” by tech companies in his home state. They noted his comments defending tech at a hearing in September, his voting record in favor of the industry, and his hiring of Rene Munoz, who lobbied for Amazon and Apple before joining Correa’s office as chief of staff. Correa was one of three California Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee to vote against major bipartisan antitrust legislation in 2021 (see 2106240071). Correa replaced retired Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., as top Democrat on the House Antitrust Subcommittee. The Revolving Door Project asked for Munoz’s recusal and for Correa to publicly share communication and meeting details between his staff and Amazon and Apple. “Taking these steps is in the public interest, and failing to do so will only increase the perception that your office’s decision-making is unduly influenced by Big Tech interests,” the organization wrote. Correa’s office didn’t comment.

House Republicans nominated House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio as their pick for speaker after a contentious 124-81 vote that pitted him against Agriculture Committee Vice Chairman Austin Scott of Georgia. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a former Communications Subcommittee senior member (see 2310110057), withdrew as the designated GOP nominee Thursday, once it became clear enough Republican caucus members wouldn’t support him on the floor and thereby deny him an overall chamber majority. Jordan declared himself as again a speaker candidate after previously withdrawing in Scalise’s favor, while Scott got into the race because of misgivings about Jordan. A subsequent caucus poll on Republicans' commitment to vote for Jordan on the floor was 152-55, raising doubts about Jordan’s ability to get an overall House majority. Scott was among House Agriculture leaders who filed the Broadband for Rural America Act in 2021 in a bid to give the Agriculture Department more power to oversee rural connectivity buildout at the FCC's expense (see 2105210059).

The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote Wednesday at 10 a.m. on confirming Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak for the FTC and reconfirming Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, the committee announced, as expected (see 2309220061).

A bipartisan group of senators is circulating draft legislation to protect entertainers against unauthorized digital replicas created by AI technology. Sens. Chris Coons, D-Del.; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.; and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., introduced a discussion draft on their Nurture Originals, Foster Art and Keep Entertainment Safe (No Fakes) Act. The No Fakes Act would hold individuals, companies and platforms liable for creating and hosting such content. Actor Tom Hanks and musicians Drake and the Weekend objected to recent AI-generated content using their likenesses online. “Creators around the nation are calling on Congress to lay out clear policies regulating the use and impact of generative AI, and Congress must strike the right balance to defend individual rights, abide by the First Amendment, and foster AI innovation and creativity,” Coons said in a statement. Blackburn called it a “good first step in protecting our creative community.” The Motion Picture Association said it looks forward to working with sponsors to “ensure any eventual legislation establishes adequate protections against harmful uses of digital replicas without infringing on the First Amendment rights and creative freedoms upon which our industry depends.”