This week, the House is in recess until September 9th and the Senate voted on online-child-safety-bills. On Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees held a joint hearing regarding the attempted assassination of former President Trump and on Wednesday, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee considered the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024. On Thursday, the Appropriations Committee considered the FY25 spending bills for Energy and Water Development, Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Homeland Security, and Financial Services and General Government.Prior to their recess, the House failed to pass 12 full-year funding bills and the debate will be when they return whether to fund the government into the next fiscal year, which begins October 1st to avoid considering a massive funding measure under a lame-duck Congress.On children’s privacy and safety online, legislation (S. 1409) sponsored by Sens. Blumenthal (D-CT) and Blackburn (R-TN) and 68 other senators would require tech companies to design online platforms in such a way as to prevent or mitigate harms to users, including sexual exploitation and online bullying. Legislation (S 1418) sponsored by Sens. Markey (D-MA) Cassidy (R-LA) and 16 other senators would prohibit online platforms from disseminating children's personal information without obtaining verifiable parental consent, effectively ending ads targeted at kids and teens. This legislation would raise the age of children protected to 17, from 12 and below under current law. The two pieces of legislation are meant to mitigate social media practices aimed at keeping kids online and promoting addictive behavior. The push for them comes in part after whistleblowers from Facebook and Instagram, owned by Meta Platforms Inc., testified before Congress that the company had ignored internal warnings about the dangers children face. The White House issued a statement of administration policy calling it "a landmark bill to protect the online safety, privacy, and health of children and teenagers." If the House clears the legislation, it could result in the first laws in nearly three decades restricting how social media and technology platforms’ function.
