“This time feels different”: Senate Dems believe public sentiment against Big Tech is on their side
“This time feels different”: Senate Dems believe public sentiment against Big Tech is on their side
A highly publicized committee hearing was the latest example of the profound shift in how America now views tech companies and their leaders.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! I’m Michael Jones and this is Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about congressional politics and the impact of federal policy on diverse communities. Happy Black History Month!
In tonight’s edition, I take you inside my notebook on yesterday’s contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearing with five Big Tech CEOs on the child sexual exploitation crisis.
The senators were as combative as you’d expect parents and grandparents of kids from a generation who know no other world than one with social apps and the upsides and ails that come with it to be. The spectacle produced several viral moments that I’m sure are being spliced into campaign fundraising emails as you’re reading this.
Speaking of campaigns, thanks to all of you who upgraded your subscription from free to paid following Monday’s in-depth report on the Biden campaign’s recent work to connect with Black men. Every paid subscription to this newsletter is an economic signal that people value the original reporting and the rigor, persistence and sourcing required to produce it consistently.
On a separate note, I explored the likelihood of congressional action artificial intelligence in my weekly Courier column following the AI-generated sexually explicit images of Taylor Swift that were posted to X earlier this month. Although Congress is leading from behind on the issue, it’s an institution optimized for lawmakers to make policy in response to crises. As I wrote in my piece, the politics of an issue can be just the catalyst that inspires a sense of urgency.
We’ll get to my reporting on the Big Tech hearing, but first…
NATIONAL SECURITY SUPPLEMENTAL
thank u, text • What are you doing this weekend? Whatever it is, it will probably be more fun than what the Capitol Hill press corps will be up to: Reviewing the legislative text of the long-awaited bill fulfilling an emergency funding request for a series of President Joe Biden’s national security priorities.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced this afternoon that we could see the text as early as tomorrow but no later than Sunday. The Senate will start their week on Monday instead of Tuesday, the same day Schumer will tee up the first procedural vote that senators will take on Wednesday.
The bill will include the border security restrictions House and Senate conservatives demanded at the outset of this drama that they say now they’ll vote against without knowing what’s in the bill because former President Donald Trump told them too. Billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Taiwan to handle all manner of global crises could fall by the wayside if the far-right hardliners keep their word.
Negotiations have been in play since Biden submitted his request in October. And now Washington is about to enter a new phase of hand-wringing from both ends of the ideological spectrum over which provisions go too far and the ones that don’t fall too short. Senate leaders will look to win enough support from the middle out that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will have no other political recourse but to bring the bill to the House floor.
WYDEN-SMITH TAX BILL
Progressives endure tough vote • The House voted on Wednesday to pass a $80 billion measure that would partially restore the Child Tax Credit, enhance the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, a provision to expand the affordable housing supply and provide disaster tax relief to cover recent hurricanes, flooding, wildfires and the 2023 Ohio rail disaster. The bill, which was hammered out by Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways & Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.), also includes several business-friendly tax cuts.
The vote was especially tough for some House progressives, several sources told me last night and this morning. The Congressional Progressive Caucus did not formally whip the bill but did provide its members with substantial resources on the impact of the Child Tax Credit. I’m told had there been a formal strategy in play to strengthen the Child Tax Credit, House progressives would have been willing to hold the line.
Ultimately, many House progressives based their vote on how many kids in their district would be supported or excluded by the revised Child Tax Credit. I also learned that the CPC reached out to their Senate counterparts to ask if progressives could deliver 70 no votes, would it give Senate Democrats leverage to improve the Child Tax Credit. This obviously did not come to pass.
The fate of the bill remains uncertain. Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters today that Senate Republicans would prevent the legislation from receiving a final vote unless so-called work requirements on the Child Tax Credit are tightened. I don’t see how congressional Democrats would agree to this demand given the generous tax breaks for businesses. But the risk of losing the affordable housing and disaster relief credits could complicate the politics for Dems.
The bill was considered under suspension of the rules, which is Washington talk for a fast-track process that prevented House conservatives from blocking a floor vote. Suspension bills require a two-thirds majority of present and voting members. With 427 members voting, the House needed 285 yeas. 189 came from Democrats, who reliably step up to carry most critical suspension bills despite technically serving in the minority party.
JORDAN DRONE ATTACK
The world awaits Biden’s response • President Biden told reporters this week that he’s decided how he’ll respond to the drone strike last Sunday by an Iran-backed militia in northeast Jordan that killed three US service members and injured dozens more. Biden is fielding calls from his right to strike Iran, whose government has denied any involvement in the attack, and appeals from the left to avoid escalating the Israel-Hamas war into a broader regional conflict.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told me this morning that it is important for President Biden and the administration to decisively respond to honor the three American patriots who were killed and paid the ultimate sacrifice.
“And that’s what they’re going to do at their own pace,” he added. “But in a manner that I believe will make clear that this type of aggressive action against our troops will never be tolerated.”
PUBLIC SAFETY
The SWAT files • The rise in swatting incidents has become a micro-beat in my coverage as members of Congress continue to be targeted in the dangerous crimes.
I’m not really a doomsday kind of guy, but I’m deeply concerned that one of the incidents will result in catastrophic consequences if the pace of them continues to accelerate.
I asked Leader Jeffries about it during his weekly press conference and he told me a bipartisan solution is possible but stopped short of delving into specifics.
He said swatting, which involves prank-calling emergency services in an attempt to activate a massive law enforcement response to a particular address, endangers the lives of the American people, the families of members of Congress and the responding law enforcement officers themselves.
“The swatting incidents, of course, are affecting everyone and members of Congress should be able to serve free of violence, harassment and intimidation on both sides of the aisle so we can do what the American people sent us to Washington to do, which is solve problems and deliver real results.”
Now, back to Big Tech grilling…
With its 15-percent approval rating, it’s rare for members of Congress to receive rounds of applause for their efforts. But during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday to examine the steps five Big Tech companies have taken to reduce child sexual exploitation and push for robust guardrails on the unregulated companies, senators from both sides of the aisle drew ovation from the crowd as they excoriated executives representing each company.
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