States are scrambling to enact price gouging laws in response to online sellers taking advantage of COVID-19 demands. Maryland passed an emergency measure Wednesday, and plans are evolving in Minnesota. Arkansas passed an emergency measure earlier this month.
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
Facebook and Google aren’t sharing location data with the government for tracking COVID-19, the companies said Thursday after reports of such industry consultation. Ed Markey, D-Mass., raised privacy concerns and other senators criticized the tech industry’s response to online misinformation.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told us Wednesday he’s optimistic about the bipartisan coalition pushing amendments for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization (see 2003160065). It’s a “small miracle” the Senate is considering amendments after Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to force a decision on the underlying bill through a cloture vote, Paul said.
The Senate on Monday agreed to a 77-day extension to vote on Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization. The USA Freedom Reauthorization Act, which would end NSA’s call detail records program (see 2003110077), passed the House 278-136 Wednesday. Key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act authorities, including the CDR program, expired Sunday.
Industry groups contend OMB is prioritizing innovation and the groups suggested voluntary standards for artificial intelligence regulation. The Center for Democracy & Technology criticized the AI draft guidance for lack of concrete suggestions. OMB guidance "aims to support a U.S. approach to free-market capitalism, federalism, and good regulatory practices,” said the request for comment. The draft memorandum provides guidance to agencies for developing regulatory and nonregulatory approaches for sectors and “consider ways to reduce barriers to the development and adoption of AI technologies.” Comments were due Friday and are posted here. The guidance provides a “strong foundation for federal agencies to craft regulations while maintaining the regulatory flexibility that companies need to innovate,” the Computer & Communications Industry Association said. CCIA recommended any new regulations be “technology-neutral, and apply to outcomes rather than prescribing specific technical practices.” The Information Technology Industry Council applauded the agency’s “emphasis on using a risk-based approach to AI regulation” and guidance that federal agencies consider AI applications individually rather than applying horizontal regulation. ITI supports the draft memo’s “emphasis on using voluntary standards as an alternative to new regulation.” BSA|The Software Alliance agreed with the guidance that “the goal of AI governance should be to promote innovation and enhance public trust.” Nonregulatory policy approaches, like sector-specific frameworks and voluntary consensus standards, “can play a critically important role” in promoting AI applications, BSA said. CDT approves of the agency’s common sense approach but said it “offers little guidance beyond our understanding of the basic tenets of sound policymaking and good administrative processes.” CDT sought concrete steps agencies should take in regulating and said “agencies should consider and clarify existing legal and policy approaches first.” ACT|The App Association supports voluntary consensus standards for AI application. It recommended the U.S. ensure such standards promote a balanced approach to standard-essential patent licensing, saying a number of owners of fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms SEPs are abusing their unique positions (see 2002140026).
President Donald Trump’s 2021 budget request for the National Institute of Standards and Technology, representing a 30% cut, is disappointing, House Research and Technology Subcommittee Chair Haley Stevens, D-Mich., said during a hearing Wednesday. About $1.1 billion was enacted in 2020 for NIST, and the president has requested $738 million for 2021. The budget is demoralizing to NIST employees, said Stevens. Ranking member Jim Baird, R-Ind., highlighted NIST’s role in establishing a national strategy for artificial intelligence. He is pleased to see the president request doubling NIST investment in AI. NIST Director Walter Copan testified the agency is focused on addressing fundamental use of AI to make sure it’s trustworthy and explainable and to make sure it’s engaged broadly. NIST continues to work with industry, government and academia to establish governing principles, he said.
If Congress won’t pass Section 230 legislation for combating child exploitation (see 2003090065), the alternative is a liability protection carve-out, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Wednesday after a committee hearing. He introduced legislation with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that would alter the Communications Decency Act section. Companies would have to comply with best practices for filtering child abuse content or face lawsuits from victims. The legislation would establish a commission of government officials, industry representatives and experts to certify best business practices.
The House passed legislation 278-136 Wednesday that would end NSA’s call detail records program (see 2003100031). The chamber was considering amendments in the early evening. Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rand Paul, R-Ky., plan to block the legislation, which revises and renews the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. It “doesn’t fix what’s wrong with FISA. It would not have stopped the spying that occurred against” President Donald Trump, Lee tweeted: “I will do everything I can to oppose it in the Senate,” and if it passes, Trump should veto it. “It is by no means a perfect bill,” Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said on the House floor Wednesday. “There are many other changes to FISA that I would have liked to have seen here -- but this bill includes important reforms.” USA Freedom Act Section 215 surveillance authorities are to expire Sunday. Attorney General William Barr announced support for the House compromise. The House bill contains “new requirements and compliance provisions that will protect against abuse and misuse in the future while ensuring that this critical tool is available when appropriate to protect the safety of the American people,” Barr said. That Barr, who helped craft the phone records program, supports the bill “is further proof that the bill is utterly inadequate,” said American Civil Liberties Union Senior Legislative Counsel Neema Singh Guliani. The ACLU wrote lawmakers opposing the House legislation, saying the changes “are minimal -- in many cases merely representing a codification of the status quo.”
Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) and Cory Booker (N.J.) introduced legislation Tuesday that would require dominant companies to prove their exclusionary conduct doesn’t harm competition. Klobuchar, ranking member of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, announced the legislation during a subcommittee hearing (see 2003090037). Yelp Senior Vice President-Public Policy Luther Lowe said he knows dozens and dozens of CEOs who don’t speak publicly about Google’s anticompetitive behavior due to fear of retaliation.
The Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee will explore site blocking as a form of internet piracy prevention, Chairman Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told us Tuesday after a hearing. Ranking member Chris Coons, D-Del., said he’s “open to it,” and it needs to be weighed against the speech concerns.