Analysts surveyed by CQ Roll Call say that if Republicans control the Senate, technology policy will likely tilt towards industry-friendly conditions, from regulating artificial intelligence to expanding high-speed internet.
The Biden administration, which now has a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, has focused on increasing oversight of tech companies and protecting consumers.
The key presidential and Senate races in November remain very close and unpredictable, but some polling organizations predict that Republicans will ultimately win a majority of 51 seats. One of the most closely watched races is in Montana, where incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is challenging Tim Sheehy. An average of polls calculated by ABC News’ 538 election sites shows Sheehy leading by 5.4 points as of Oct. 21.
“Over the past four years, I have spent a lot of time trying to strike a balance that I think is most important, paying particular attention to how to position the public interest when it comes to technology policy and bring more accountability to Big Tech actors. We need to foster innovation alongside effective potential regulatory oversight,” said Nicole Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution.
Congress has proposed legislation to address harm caused by technology, but “we have not been successful in passing any significant legislation,” Turner-Lee said in an interview. Nevertheless, she said that in the Republican-led Senate, “the public interest side will be ignored and there will be a lot of discussion about how to position innovation for market benefits.”
A change of government could also mean that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), currently ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, will become chairman in the next Congress — Mr. Cruz will be replaced by Democrat Colin. -Assuming he wins the election against Mr. Allred. According to Nathan L. Gonzalez’s Inside Elections, polls show Mr. Cruz leading, with some saying the margin is as close as 1 percentage point.
Cruz supports narrow legislation to address technological harms such as AI-generated pornography, while criticizing the Biden administration’s approach to regulating AI and bipartisan legislation to create federal data privacy standards. .
At a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event in Texas on Sept. 21, Cruz said that too much regulation will hinder AI development and undermine U.S. leadership in technology, according to a chamber summary. He said it could be surrendered to China.
In March, Mr. Cruz co-authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with former Sen. Phil Gramm, citing President Bill Clinton’s hands-off approach to Internet development in the 1990s.
“In doing so, it unleashed extraordinary economic growth and prosperity,” Cruz and Graham write. “In contrast, the Biden administration is hindering innovation in artificial intelligence with aggressive regulation, which could deny America’s global leadership in AI and the prosperity that leadership would bring.” be.”
“dangerous” command
An executive order issued by President Joe Biden in October 2023 requires multiple agencies to gather public comments and develop new regulations. The department has delegated responsibilities to the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Commerce, including the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is responsible for developing safety standards for the design and deployment of generative AI models.
The order directs the Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Federal Housing Finance Agency to develop regulations to address bias and other harm caused by artificial intelligence systems. The FTC should also consider whether it can use existing authority to force fair competition among AI companies.
The 2024 Republican Party Platform called Biden’s executive order “dangerous” and said it would “hinder AI innovation and impose radical leftist ideas on the development of this technology.” Instead, Republicans support AI development rooted in free speech and human flourishing. ”
Will Reinhart, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said Senate Democrats could try to force passage of a bill that would codify some aspects of the executive order to thwart efforts to repeal it. He said that there is. He said two measures already approved by the Senate Commerce Committee are likely to succeed during the lame duck session.
One would require the creation of the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) by the National Science Foundation. Another would create an AI Safety Institute at NIST to develop voluntary guidelines and testing standards for advanced AI models.
House committees have introduced companion bills on both subjects. The House bill establishing NAIRR would authorize up to $2.5 billion in funding for the entity. Another measure is to establish an AI safety center.
cruise control
But if Republicans win a majority in the Senate without winning the White House, they may not be able to roll back agency action and “change the regulatory state,” Reinhart said. Such a scenario would increase the likelihood that Senate Republicans would increase oversight of regulators.
Mr. Cruz’s opposition to bipartisan federal data privacy standards is consistent with the situation in the House. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. There is. But it has stalled in the House due to opposition from House Republican leaders.
Mr. Cruz said the proposal would give the Federal Trade Commission too much power.
“I support Congress setting national data privacy standards, not the Federal Trade Commission or federal agencies,” he said during a July hearing on the matter. “Privacy protections are not only good for Americans, they are also good for American businesses, which desperately need legal certainty given the increasingly complex patchwork of state laws. But our goal should not be to pass uniform data privacy standards, but to pass appropriate standards that protect privacy without hindering American innovation.”
Michael Petricone, senior vice president of the Consumer Technology Association, an industry group, said Mr. Cruz would “take another shot” at federal privacy standards if he becomes chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
Mr. Petricone said in an interview that the group wants the Republican-led federal data privacy bill to eliminate private rights of action, the right for individuals to sue tech companies over the issue. This is a right enshrined in California’s privacy law, but tech companies and several Republican lawmakers oppose it.
“We also want it to be clearly pre-emptive,” he said. This means overriding state privacy standards in favor of national ones.
Mr. Cruz, who voted in favor of two child online safety measures that passed the Senate on a 91-3 vote in July, has advocated for tightly tailored legislation, but he has also supported more closely tailored legislation, including increasing federal spectrum auction authority. I have opposed the bill that would return it to the Communications Commission. Cruz said Senate Democrats are seeking to use auction proceeds to fund a Biden administration program that would subsidize high-speed internet to certain households across the country.
Mr. Cruz asked Senate Minority Whip John Thune, D-R.S., to reduce the frequency that would be considered more industry-friendly and refrain from spending auction proceeds to restore rural broadband subsidies that expired in May. proposed a bill.
Turner-Lee said Republicans and Democrats will likely continue to clash over Section 230’s social media content moderation restrictions after the election. This provision is a provision of U.S. law that protects online companies from lawsuits over content created by individual users.
Republicans argue that social media companies are using the provision to censor conservative speech. Democrats say the companies have used this to allow hate speech on their platforms.
“There’s going to be more confusion when it comes to Big Tech, largely driven by ideological preferences,” Turner-Lee said in the Republican-led Senate. “It’s clear there will be more discussion about conservative censorship.”
