Two Senate Commerce Committee Republicans -- Rick Scott of Florida and Dan Sullivan of Alaska -- were among five Republican senators who wrote Senate members of the conference committee negotiating how to marry elements of the House-passed America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in Technology and Economic Strength Act (HR-4521) and Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260) to recommend changes aimed at strengthening the U.S.’ ability to compete with China. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., complicated negotiations on HR-4521/S-1260 last week by tweeting “there will be no bipartisan USICA as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill.” “Economic competition with China is the single most important geo-political issue facing” the U.S., the five Republican senators said in a letter to the conferees. The other signers were Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio of Florida, Mike Braun of Indiana and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. “We remain deeply concerned that several provisions germane to the conference would substantially weaken” the U.S.’ ability “to combat malicious Chinese economic influence,” the senators said. They cited language in S-1260 that would amend the 1974 Trade Act “to create a rigid exclusion process under Section 301 which we fear would eliminate it as a tool to combat unfair and malicious Chinese trade practices.” It would create “a statutory exclusion process so broad that” the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative “would be incapable of implementing an effective strategy,” the senators said: “The provision requires USTR to conduct a detailed analysis of each exclusion request and, for exclusions that it intends to deny, requires USTR to demonstrate both that the tariffs do not impact the internal finances of a business unit, and do not create an anticompetitive market structure. This burden is nearly impossible for USTR to meet.” The senators urged their conferees to accept language from HR-4521 that “we believe would be a substantial improvement over current law,” including “improvements to U.S. trade remedy laws which would help domestic manufacturers compete against unfair trade practices,” including the Chinese government-subsidized Belt and Road Initiative.

Bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday would “create new protections against selling or transferring Americans’ sensitive personal information to high-risk foreign countries.” Introduced by Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; Ron Wyden, D-Ore.; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.; and Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Surveillance Act would block bulk export of private data to countries like China. The bill would direct the Commerce Department to identify low-risk countries that would be exempted.

Congress needs to pass antitrust legislation this month (see 2206070059), said Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and bill co-sponsors during a news conference Wednesday. July 4 is a good cut-off date for when the Senate should vote, she said. “I hope we get the opportunity this month, not next month, not after the August recess,” said House Antitrust Subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo. “We all know what happens after the August recess. This bill has to pass in June.” Big Tech doesn’t want competition online, said House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I. He noted the enormous resources Big Tech is spending to kill the legislation and protect its monopoly profits. Industry has spent tens of millions on advertising campaigns that spread falsehoods about the bills, said Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Expect the Senate to vote soon on legislation that would end Big Tech self-preferencing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., told MSNBC Tuesday. She noted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “promised a vote” on the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (S. 2992/HR-3816) (see 2204270025) in the “early summer.” The vote “should be coming up quite soon,” she said. Several Democrats are delaying passage of the bill and the Open App Markets Act (S-2710) (see 2204150040), said Fight for the Future in a new campaign. The organization accused five Democrats of being “shills” for Big Tech: Brian Schatz of Hawaii; Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla of California; Margaret Hassan of New Hampshire; and Michael Bennet of Colorado. Their offices didn’t comment.

Apple and Google should ban apps from “using data mining practices that could facilitate the targeting of individuals seeking abortion services,” Democrats wrote the companies Friday. Democrats have been making similar calls since the Supreme Court’s leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade (see 2205240061). Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., signed Friday’s letter with Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Should the court overturn the decision, “anti-abortion prosecutors and even vigilantes may be able to exploit online mining of data from apps on the Google Play Store [and App Store] to stop individuals from accessing abortion services or to target them retroactively,” the lawmakers wrote. Policies “must require available apps to prohibit and protect against data practices that threaten individuals seeking abortion services.”

Bipartisan legislation that would require manufacturers to inform consumers about cameras or microphones on internet-connected devices got a bipartisan nod during a House Consumer Protection Subcommittee legislative hearing Thursday. Introduced by Reps. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Seth Moulton, D-Mass., the Informing Consumers About Smart Devices Act (HR-3938) would authorize the FTC to punish violators. House Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., both spoke in support of the bill. “No one should be surprised to learn if their electronic device has the ability to record them,” said Pallone. The bill would help Congress hold Big Tech accountable, a priority for Republicans, said Bilirakis.

Google should stop collecting and saving location data in order to prevent “extremist prosecutors” from using the data to identify individuals obtaining abortions, Democrats wrote the company Tuesday. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and more than 40 Senate and House members signed the letter. Google’s data retention practices might “allow it to become a tool for far-right extremists looking to crack down on people seeking reproductive health care,” they wrote. Google didn’t comment.

Bipartisan antitrust legislation introduced Thursday would likely force Google and Meta to sell parts of their businesses and would result in fewer consumer choices (see 2205190054), the Software & Information Industry Association said Friday. The Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act “continues a trend seen in other recently proposed legislation, where legislators seek to use the blunt instrument of antitrust law to punish a handful of large corporations, focusing only on a company’s size, not its conduct,” said President Jeff Joseph. “If there are issues that need to be addressed, this is the wrong way to do it.”

Bipartisan legislation introduced Wednesday seeks to promote digital advertising competition by eliminating conflicts of interest that allowed dominant platforms to manipulate ad auctions. Introduced by Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, with Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the Competition and Transparency in Digital Advertising Act bans “large digital advertising companies from owning more than one part of the digital ad ecosystem if they process more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions” per year. Companies that process more than $5 billion in digital ad transactions would have specific obligations for ensuring auctions are fair and in the best interest of consumers. The bill “is among the more aggressive and narrowly tailored among various bills aimed at the tech industry,” said the Computer & Communications Industry Association. “Structural interventions in the marketplace are a blunt instrument and would be a bad precedent to set for antitrust regulation,” said President Matt Schruers. “This bill seeks to amend the Clayton Act and chip away at the consumer welfare standard, both of which have helped the U.S. become a leader in tech innovation.”

There’s “so much more we can do, and so much more we have to do,” to thwart the spread of violent content on social media, especially the livestreamed video of the mass killings over the weekend at a Buffalo supermarket, Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told an Axios webinar Tuesday. “This pathetic human who did this crime was inspired by other similar attacks that he’d seen online,” said Katko. “We’ve got to get more sophisticated algorithms and more sophisticated vehicles in technology to prevent these individuals from spreading this filth online. To wear a camera and livestream killing people is something that we’ve got to do everything we can, using every technology at our disposal, to try and prevent. We’re going to endeavor to do that going forward.”