Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and three other congressional Democrats urged Amazon and Facebook Wednesday to end their bid for FTC Chair Lina Khan’s recusal from antitrust decisions involving the companies (see 2107160052). Khan “has no ... conflicts that would require recusal,” Warren and the other Democrats wrote Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “There is no basis for her recusal under the current federal ethics statute or FTC precedent. Your efforts to sideline Chair Khan appear to be nothing more than attempts to force an FTC stalemate that would allow you to evade accountability for any anti-competitive behavior.” Others signing are Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington. Both companies “have engaged in a coordinated attack to discredit Chair Khan on ethics grounds, even -- in the case of Amazon -- going so far as to request immunity from any future antitrust investigations,” the lawmakers said. “The real basis of your concerns appears to be that you fear Chair Khan’s expertise and interpretation of federal antitrust law.” The platforms didn’t comment.

Government must better understand how social media transmission of “hateful” content leads to violence, said Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Gary Peters, D-Mich., during a hearing Tuesday. The committee will examine the issue throughout the year, he said. Ranking member Rob Portman, R-Ohio, expressed disappointment officials didn’t testify about how agencies are addressing the problem. Five years after a Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations hearing with witnesses from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI and State Department, extremists are still exploiting platforms, said Portman. Congress must change the way the federal government approaches domestic terrorism, said Peters. The committee released a bipartisan report Tuesday saying seven of eight federal agencies are failing to comply with baseline cybersecurity requirements under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act. It describes systemic failures at the State, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education departments and the Social Security Administration. The report cites failures to protect personal information, to “maintain accurate and comprehensive IT asset inventories, to maintain current authorizations to operate for information systems, to install security patches quickly, and to retire legacy technology no longer supported by the vendor.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., sparred Tuesday about the pace the chamber will take in considering the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, filed as a substitute amendment to shell bill HR-3684. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is leading efforts to amend the infrastructure package’s $65 billion broadband title to address anti-digital redlining and consumer protection provisions some Republicans consider a potential back door to rate regulation (see 2108020061). Senate Democrats and Republicans are working to set up “additional votes” on amendments to the measure, but the chamber needs to “work efficiently to set up those votes,” Schumer told reporters. The “longer it takes to finish” consideration of HR-3684, “the longer we’ll be here” since the Senate “will complete both” the infrastructure bill and a separate resolution to set up a supplemental budget reconciliation package “before we leave for the August recess.” McConnell told reporters he favors “trying to get an outcome” on HR-3684, but the “best way to pass this infrastructure bill is to not try to file cloture today” and speed the process. “This is an extremely important bipartisan bill” and “to try to truncate” the amendments process “on something of this magnitude, I think is a mistake,” he said. If Schumer attempts to file cloture Tuesday to end amendments consideration, McConnell will urge Republicans to filibuster. Senators voted 95-1 Monday in favor of an amendment from Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., to attach language from the Telecommunications Skilled Workforce Act (S-163 and see 2102020072). Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, touted on the Senate floor her work with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., to reach a deal on the package’s broadband language. She hoped the Senate will vote on an amendment from Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, that would “give more flexibility to states to invest in broadband using some of the” money they received from previous COVID-19 aid bills. Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio; Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; and Angus King, I-Maine, cited the infrastructure package’s inclusion of $42.5 billion for an NTIA-administered Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment grants program, mirroring a proposal in their S-2071.

Senate Republicans introduced legislation Wednesday that would allow the FTC to oversee data use practices of common carriers and nonprofits. The Setting an American Framework to Ensure Data Access, Transparency and Accountability (Safe Data) Act -- from Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker, Miss., and Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Marsha Blackburn, Tenn. -- would allow the FTC to develop new rules on categories of sensitive data and require the agency to maintain a data broker registry. Consumers would be able to access, correct, delete and port data under the legislation. It would bar companies from processing or transferring user data without user consent.

House Commerce Committee Republicans released Wednesday 32 discussion drafts aimed at holding “Big Tech accountable by improving transparency and content moderation accountability, reforming” Communications Decency Act Section 230, “promoting competition, and preventing illegal and harmful activity.” Committee Republicans want “Big Tech to be transparent, uphold American values for free speech, and stop their abuse of power that is harming our children,” said ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington. The drafts include one from McMorris Rodgers and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to amend Section 230 to “remove liability protections for companies who censor constitutionally protected speech on their platforms, require appeals processes, and transparency for content enforcement decisions.” Jordan in June previewed plans for the legislation in response to House Judiciary advancement of Big Tech competition measures he saw as a bid at pursuing “radical” antitrust policy (see 2106240071). House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, R-Ohio, proposes amending 230 “to remove liability protections from companies that act as Bad Samaritans and knowingly promote, solicit, or facilitate illegal activity.” Former House Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., seeks to remove liability protections for actions the FTC takes against a company. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, proposes barring companies from blocking or preventing access to lawful content, along with degrading or impairing access. Rep. Billy Long, R-Mo., wants to require companies disclose how they develop their content moderation policies. Additional content moderation measures target revenge porn, child porn and doxxing. A bid by Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma would require edge providers contribute to USF. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Roger Wicker of Mississippi and other committee Republicans propose the FCC explore such a requirement (see 2107210067).

The Commerce Department and NTIA haven't changed in their opposition to the FCC's Ligado approval, Secretary Gina Raimondo told Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., in a June 22 letter released Wednesday. "NTIA will continue its efforts on behalf of the Executive Branch to oppose it," including ongoing pursuit of the reconsideration petition before the FCC, she said. NTIA "stands ready to support" DOD in an independent technical review of the Ligado order it's having done by the National Academy of Sciences, she said. Inhofe, in comments on the Senate floor, said he communicated with Raimondo as he wanted to ensure "that even with a change in administration, government departments and agencies still wanted to see the harmful order repealed." Commerce's response "shows, once again, that there is bipartisan concern about the Ligado order that is continuing into the Biden administration," he said.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., met with President Joe Biden Tuesday on senators’ work on an infrastructure spending amid concerns talks were unravelling (see 2107260060). Sinema told reporters the meeting was “productive” and bipartisan talks are “moving forward.” It's “always hard to answer” whether those negotiations remain on track, but they appear to be, she said. “It’s very much in everyone’s interest for a bipartisan deal to be completed,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, another member of the group. He confirmed that broadband policy issues remain a sticking point in the talks.

The House Rules Committee is allowing floor consideration of two broadband amendments as part of an FY 2022 appropriations minibus (HR-4502) that the chamber began to consider Tuesday (see 2107260060). The panel didn’t agree Monday to allow a floor vote on an amendment from Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., to eliminate CPB funding. The broadband amendments that could get floor votes include a proposal led by Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Ill., to expand eligibility for the Department of Agriculture’s ReConnect program by setting the threshold for unserved rural areas at 25/3 Mbps. The panel also agreed to advance a bid led by Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., to increase FCC broadband data mapping funds by $1 million. The underlying HR-4502 includes $388 million for the FCC, almost $390 million for the FTC (see 2106300028), more than $907 million for USDA rural broadband programs and $565 million for CPB in FY 2024. Votes on amendments were expected Tuesday night.

Facebook needs to close a “loophole” allowing ex-President Donald Trump to remain a “regular presence” on the platform despite his two-year ban, advocates wrote the company Monday. Common Cause signed the letter with Center for American Progress, Free Press, National Hispanic Media Coalition and others. They criticized the platform for allowing the Team Trump page, run by Trump’s Save America political action committee, to “continue running political ads on Facebook.” They cited Facebook’s reasoning that “groups affiliated with the former president are not barred from posting on Facebook so long as they are not posting in his ‘voice.’” They asked the platform to clearly define “what content it considers to be in the voice of public figures and align its content moderation policies with campaign finance law.” The company didn’t comment.

Officials from DOJ, the FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Secret Service will testify at a Tuesday hearing on ransomware threats (see 2107150036). Deputy Assistant Attorney General-Criminal Division Richard Downing, FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran, Department of Homeland Security's CISA Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity Eric Goldstein and Secret Service Investigations Office Assistant Director Jeremy Sheridan will testify at 10 a.m. in 226 Dirksen.