The Senate was highly unlikely to be able to hold votes on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn this week even before the chamber's planned Monday night return from a two-week recess, amid a new set of Democratic absences. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut separately announced they're quarantining this week after testing positive for COVID-19. Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont is recovering from hip replacement surgery and it's unclear whether he will be available for floor votes this week. All 50 Senate Democratic caucus members' votes will be needed to overcome expected uniform GOP opposition in the tied chamber. Former FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani and Free Press co-CEO Jessica Gonzalez criticized Schumer Sunday for refusing to use his power to bring Sohn up for a Senate vote to discharge her from the Commerce Committee's jurisdiction, an initial step to bringing her to the floor. "Instead of confronting the dishonest attacks" against Sohn that have contributed to the confirmation stall (see 2206240074), "Democratic leaders have dithered and delayed," Gonzalez and Tristani said in a New York Daily News opinion piece. "Schumer may be reluctant to call a vote for Sohn without clear commitments from 50 senators. But a small set of holdouts won’t commit unless a vote is called. And so Sohn waits as the midterm elections inch closer, and the Democrats risk losing power in Congress." The "absence of a fully functional FCC is a profound liability for the party at a time of multiple crises, when people rely on an internet connection to learn about job opportunities, seek vital healthcare and engage in civic affairs," Gonzalez and Tristani said: "If Sen. Schumer doesn’t call a vote now, Sohn may never get confirmed," which "would be an unforgivable failure for a Democratic Party that can’t seem to get out of its own way to serve the public."

The House Rules Committee set a Wednesday due date for lawmakers to submit amendments to House Appropriations Committee-cleared FY 2023 funding bills for the FCC, FTC and Agriculture Department. House Appropriations proposes giving the FCC $390 million, the FTC $490 million and USDA rural broadband programs $560 million (see 2206270061). Rules "is likely to meet the week of July 18 to grant a rule that may provide a structured amendment process for floor consideration" of the Appropriations measures, the committee said Friday. Amendments are due at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

The House Rules Committee plans a Tuesday meeting to reconsider the Active Shooter Alert Act (HR-6538) and vote on allowing floor consideration of a series of telecom and tech amendments to the FY 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (HR-7900). The meeting will begin at noon in the Capitol Room H-313. The House failed to pass HR-6538 last month under suspension of the rules (see 2206230002). The measure would direct DOJ to create a national active shooter alert system that would use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (see 2206210048). Filed HR-7900 amendments include proposals to require more DOD transparency on its implementation of its 2020 spectrum sharing strategy, bar TikTok use on government devices, and several focusing on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (see 2207070064).

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio, R-Fla., urged the FTC Tuesday to "immediately initiate" an FTC Act "Section 5 investigation on the basis of apparent deception by TikTok" and parent company ByteDance about whether China-based employees have access to U.S. users' data on the app. They noted recent "public reports" that individuals in China have been accessing data on U.S. users. TikTok said last month amid scrutiny from FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr and Senate Republicans that it has always given company engineers, including those in China, access to U.S. user data on an “as-needed basis” under “strict controls" (see 2206280064). Those actions contradict "several public representations" by TikTok executives, "including sworn testimony" at an October Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing (see 2110260070), Warner and Rubio said in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan. They believe a Section 5 probe is necessary since "TikTok’s privacy practices are already subject to" a 2019 consent decree (see 1902270059) "based on its improper collection and processing of personal information from children." Recent "updates to TikTok’s privacy policy, which indicate that TikTok may be collecting biometric data such as faceprints and voiceprints (i.e. individually identifiable image and audio data, respectively), heighten the concern that data of U.S. users may be vulnerable to extrajudicial access by security services controlled" by the Chinese Communist Party, the senators said. TikTok said it "has never shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked." The FTC confirmed it received the letter.

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.

A bipartisan group of House Science Committee members announced the introduction of a bill meant to grow and retain a “diverse, flexible, and sustainable chips workforce.” Introduced Wednesday by House Research and Technology Subcommittee Chair Haley Stevens, D-Mich., with Reps. Dan Kildee, D-Mich.; Mike Waltz, R-Fla.; and Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, the Chipping in Act would establish National Science Foundation awards for “institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations and consortia to advance innovative approaches to developing, improving, and expanding evidence-based microelectronics education and workforce development activities.” The bill creates training programs for students who pursue microelectronics in post-graduate programs, prioritizing historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges and other minority-serving schools.

Federal agencies, particularly those in law enforcement, need to better assess privacy risks and protections for facial recognition technology, GAO Director-Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics Candice Wright told the House Oversight Subcommittee Wednesday. GAO shared results with the subcommittee showing 13 of 14 agencies that reported using nonfederal, face-scanning technologies didn’t have “complete, up-to-date information on what non-federal systems were used by employees because they did not track this information.” Agency headquarters often didn’t have a good understanding of what was happening in regional and local offices, said Wright: Using face-scanning systems without assessing privacy risks and protections can result in agencies running afoul of state and federal regulations, she said. The most common use of the technology within agencies is unlocking smartphones. Other uses include domestic law enforcement generating leads for investigations and agencies monitoring access to buildings and facilities, she said.

The House voted 234-193 Friday to pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (S-2938), which requires the Department of Health and Human Services to provide technical assistance and issue guidance to state governments on “improving access to telehealth for services covered under Medicaid” and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The Senate passed S-2938 Thursday night 65-33. President Joe Biden intends to sign the measure. The House didn’t hold a requested vote on the Promoting U.S. International Leadership in 5G Act (HR-1934), which would direct the secretary of state to assist in enhancing U.S. leadership at international standards-setting bodies that handle 5G and other telecom issues (see 2206210048).

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.

The House voted 259-162 Wednesday for the Active Shooter Alert Act (HR-6538), short of the two-thirds majority of present lawmakers needed to pass the measure under suspension of the rules. HR-6538 would direct DOJ to create a national active shooter alert system. The measure would direct DOJ to coordinate with the FCC, Transportation Department and FEMA to use the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System to issue active shooter alerts (see 2206210048). HR-6538 drew support from 215 Democrats and 44 Republicans, including House Commerce Committee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. The chamber "will take up this legislation again and pass it -- making clear that Democrats are on the side of protecting our families and supporting our courageous first responders," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The bill "would help law enforcement send out AMBER-style alerts when a gunman opens fire," ensuring "passersby do not unknowingly walk into a dangerous area." House Republicans "overwhelming and inexplicably voted to oppose the needs of law enforcement heroes and to keep this crucial, life-saving information away from our communities,” Pelosi said.