The FTC needs to turn over documents about Chair Lina Khan’s communication with ethics officials to determine whether she violated ethics rules and misled Congress, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, wrote the FTC Wednesday in a letter signed by House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. Jordan wrote that reports suggest Khan omitted information when responding to questions from Rodgers during a subcommittee hearing on Khan’s communications with the FTC's Designated Agency Ethics Official: Details suggest Khan “declined to fully follow ethics advice” that she recuse herself from a “pending FTC matter in 2022.” The matter involved the DAEO’s analysis on her ability to “sit as a judge in a specific proceeding before the FTC,” he wrote. Jordan requested transcribed interviews with FTC employees in various departments, including the Competition Bureau, the Technology Enforcement Division and the General Counsel’s Office, in a separate letter. Senate Commerce Committee ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is also probing agency activity under Khan (see 2306230058). The FTC declined comment.

Senate Commerce Committee Republicans are launching an investigation into the FTC’s “mismanagement” and “mistreatment of staffers” under Chair Lina Khan, ranking member Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced Thursday. In a letter he sent June 19, Cruz said he’s “troubled by recent reports regarding FTC employees’ sinking morale and deepening lack of confidence in FTC leadership.” He cited the 2022 Office of Personnel Management Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, which reported in January that 49% of FTC employees agreed agency “leaders maintain high standards of honesty and integrity.” He noted the percentage is 4 points lower than in 2021 and 38 points lower than 2020, when 87% of employees “believed that the agency’s leaders ‘maintain[ed] high standards of honesty and integrity.’” He encouraged FTC employees to report concerns to committee Republicans. House Judiciary Committee Republicans are also probing the agency (see 2304120052). The FTC confirmed receiving the letter but declined comment.

YouTube is wrong to allow “false content disputing the integrity” of the 2020 election and other elections to remain on its platform, House Commerce Committee Democrats wrote the company Thursday. They said a recent announcement to reverse election misinformation policies will allow false content to remain on the service. Ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., wrote the letter with House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.; House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui, D-Calif.; and House Oversight Subcommittee ranking member Cathy Castor, D-Fla. “While you claim that taking such action is ‘core to a functioning democratic society,’ we emphatically disagree,” they said. “Not only is this decision extremely irresponsible, but, in fact, it threatens to weaken our democracy, and therefore we strongly urge you to reconsider this harmful policy decision.” Google didn’t comment.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is sending a letter to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel seeking a record refresh on streaming media services and “the changing landscape of media," she said Thursday during a Senate confirmation hearing for FCC nominees (see 2306220067). In 2014, former Chairman Tom Wheeler circulated a proposal (see 1410280053) to change the definition of a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) to be technology neutral. “I’m very concerned about the decline of local news,” Cantwell said at the hearing. “The FCC started a proceeding to examine this issue but has been stalled for nearly a decade,” she said: “You can’t have an FCC that’s stalled over the complexity -- we have to resolve this issue.” The three commissioner nominees said they support reopening the proceeding. In the nearly 10 years “since the FCC launched the proceeding, the video service landscape has changed dramatically,” the letter says: “However, today when viewers have more options for what content to watch (and which platform to watch it from), local broadcasts remain the recognized expert and dominant source for local news for many Americans.” As consumers recognize, “streaming platforms have drastically changed their ability to access local broadcast content,” said NAB President Curtis LeGeyt. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also raised the issue during the hearing, citing a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Thursday by former Commissioner Robert McDowell. A loophole in FCC rules “allows networks to take control of local stations’ distribution rights, negotiate ‘on their behalf’ with streaming services, pocket fees for others’ content, and leave stations with much less money than if they had cut their own deals,” McDowell wrote: “Stations are given a ‘choice’ to accept the networks’ terms or risk losing network programming, which could put them out of business.”

Bicameral, bipartisan legislation introduced Tuesday would create a national commission for exploring artificial intelligence regulation. Introduced by Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif.; Ken Buck, R-Colo.; and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., the National AI Commission Act would set the stage for commission recommendations on “any new office or governmental structure that may be necessary" and a "risk-based framework for AI,” Lieu’s office said. Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, will introduce legislation in the Senate. The Computer & Communications Industry Association credits Congress for “taking the lead and gathering information before writing regulations that could impact U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence,” said President Matt Schruers. The 20-person commission will include computer science, civil society, government and industry experts and will deliver three separate reports.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, reintroduced legislation Thursday to ban tech platforms from self-preferencing products (see 2208010063). Co-sponsors for the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) (S-2992) include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and ranking member Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. Public Knowledge welcomed the bill’s reintroduction. Tech companies currently decide who “gets to compete against them, in what ways, on a playing field that they own,” said Competition Policy Director Charlotte Slaiman. “We need the fair competition requirements in the AICOA to ensure that these companies compete for users on the features we care about.” The Internet Accountability Project also welcomed the bill's refiling. President Mike Davis said: “Big Tech is crushing small businesses, stifling innovation and silencing its political opponents,” and AICOA would level the playing field.

The Senate Commerce Committee formally set a June 22 hearing on new FCC nominee Anna Gomez and renominated Commissioners Brendan Carr and Geoffrey Starks, as expected (see 2306140076). The panel will also include FCC inspector general nominee Fara Damelin, Commerce said Thursday. Backers of a shift to a 3-2 Democratic FCC majority want the Senate to move Carr, Gomez and Starks simultaneously in hopes it will ensure all three nominees’ confirmation (see 2305220065). President Joe Biden nominated Damelin, current chief of staff for the Housing and Urban Development's Office of Inspector General, in March (see 2303200077). The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

Sens. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, and Roger Wicker, R-Miss., led refiling Thursday of the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (Connect) Act to make permanent a waiver of geographic restrictions on access to telehealth services, plus several other temporary rules changes allowing expanded use of the technology Congress enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schatz and Wicker first proposed the permanent waiver in 2020 (see 2006150032). House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Doris Matsui and Rep. Mike Thompson, both California Democrats, filed the companion House version. President Joe Biden signed off last year on a temporary extension of the waiver as part of the FY 2022 omnibus appropriations package (see 2203100073). “While telehealth use has skyrocketed these last few years, our laws have not kept up,” Schatz said: “Telehealth is helping people in every part of the country get the care they need, and it’s here to stay.” Telehealth “is a revolutionary development in health care delivery,” Wicker said. “The internet put communications and commerce in the palm of our hand, and it is now doing the same for health care.” Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Communications Subcommittee ranking member John Thune, R-S.D, are among 58 co-sponsors of the Senate measure.

House Commerce Committee ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said Thursday he plans to file legislation "in the coming months" aimed at fixing "loopholes" in existing anti-robocall statutes that "allow these calls to continue, update the authorities of our expert agencies, and empower consumers." He was "proud" in 2019 when then-President Donald Trump signed the Pallone-Thune Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (Traced) Act (see 1912310028) because of "the commonsense restrictions" the law "imposed on annoying robocalls and looked forward to it dramatically reducing them." The U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous 2021 ruling in Facebook v. Duguid "undermined the very foundation of existing anti-robocalls protections, and the unwanted calls almost immediately picked back up," Pallone said: "Since then, it has been disturbing to see the volume of robocalls and texts remain high. Americans are tired of them." The top court in Duguid backed a narrow definition of what constitutes an automatic telephone dialing system under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (see 2104010063).

Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday seeks to block foreign access to U.S. data on apps like TikTok. Introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Surveillance Act would direct the Commerce Department to identify sensitive data that could harm national security if exported. The Commerce secretary would compile a list of “low-risk countries, where data can be shared without restrictions, a list of high-risk countries where exports of sensitive data will be blocked, and create a system to issue licenses for data exports to nations not on either list.” The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.; and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Reps. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., will introduce companion legislation.