Today is Monday, July 29th. The House is out of session until September 9th, while the Senate is scheduled to be in session through Friday before the August recess.
3 BIG THINGS: AROUND THE BELTWAY
1. SENATE’S PRIVACY PUSH
This week the Senate will take up legislation meant to protect children’s privacy online supported by industry leaders like Snap and X. It’s likely to pass the Senate, but its future is more uncertain.
On Tuesday the Senate will vote on a package of bills containing the Kid’s Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0 (COPPA 2.0). An earlier version of COPPA passed into law in 1998 and since then Congress has not passed legislation to protect children on the internet.
COPPA 2.0 would “ban targeted ads to kids and teens, ban companies from collecting personal information from users under 17, and allow users to erase personal information collected about them. It would also establish a new division at the FTC focused on youth marketing and privacy.”
KOSA would “also require social media platforms to have a ‘duty of care’ to prevent their products from harming children, including exposing them to content that promotes drugs and alcohol or exacerbating mental health issues.”
KOSA was introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and has since garnered support from 69 other Senators, bringing the total number of co-sponsors to 71.
Opponents of KOSA worry it infringes on First Amendment freedoms. A statement from Sen. Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) office outlines the concern: “I fear this bill could be used to sue services that offer privacy-enhancing technologies like encryption or anonymity features that are essential to young people’s ability to communicate securely and privately without being spied on by predators online.”
The two bills come to the Senate floor after months of pushing from its supporters, both in Congress and from industry groups. Majority Leader Schumer teed up consideration of the bill last week to squeeze in a vote before the August recess.
For the bills to pass the House they’ll have to wait until September. However, a few factors, including the dwindling number of legislative days left on the calendar, could threaten their viability. A House version KOSA was scheduled for a markup in the House Energy and Commerce Committee a few weeks back, but the markup was canceled after pushback from GOP leadership and privacy advocates over a separate piece of legislation, the American Privacy Rights Act.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he is “looking forward to reviewing the details of the legislation that comes out of the Senate.” He added, “parents should have greater control and the necessary tools to protect their kids online. I am committed to working to find consensus in the House.”
2. APPROPRIATIONS RECAP AND OUTLOOK
Lawmakers have until September 30th to wrap up the appropriations process. The chances of an on-time finish are slim to none, and slim (the House) just left town. As for the Senate, it’s a similar story. A continuing resolution until at least after the election is likely.
To date, the House has passed 5 funding bills on the floor, sending them to the Senate for consideration: Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Defense, Homeland Security, State-Foreign Operations, Interior-Environment. The House Appropriations Committee successfully passed all 12 bills out of committee.
Last week, the following bills were pulled from floor consideration over concerns they would not pass in their current form: Energy-Water Development, Agriculture-FDA, and Financial Services-General Government.
The Legislative Branch appropriations bill failed on the House floor a few weeks back, mainly due to its inclusion of a freeze of a cost-of-living pay raise for members of Congress.
The Labor-HHS, Commerce-Justice-Science, and Transportation-HUD bills were all scheduled for floor consideration this week but an early break for recess pushed them until House members return in September.
On the Senate side, none of the 12 appropriations bills have the seen the floor. As for full committee approval, the following bills have advanced: Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment, Legislative Branch, Military-Construction-Veterans Affairs, State-Foreign Ops, and Transportation-HUD.
The Energy-Water, Defense, Labor-HHS, and Financial Services bills are all scheduled for markup at the committee level this Thursday starting at 9:30 am.
Senate Appropriators still plan to pass all 12 bills out of committee, but it will have to wait until after recess. The Homeland Security bill was also part of the Thursday markup but was pulled from the markup’s slate this morning.
The chances of the full appropriations process being complete by the end of the fiscal year are very low, and lawmakers are aware of this. Both the Chair and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations committee expect a continuing resolution until after the November election, when the die will be cast for the makeup of the next Congress and the White House.
3. SCOTUS REFORM ENDORSED BY BIDEN
An op-ed published on Monday morning detailed President Biden’s calls for a string of reforms for the US Supreme Court, including the establishment of term limits for justices, a binding ethics code, and a constitutional amendment that would remove presidential immunity for crimes committed by a US President while serving in office.
The signal for reforms with regards to presidential immunity comes amidst a Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that stated former presidents maintain a certain level of immunity from prosecution for “official acts” while in office.
Calls for imposing a binding ethics code come amidst multiple controversial actions by several justices, most notably ProPublica’s April 2023 report that detailed how Justice Clarence Thomas accepted undisclosed gifts and luxury travel from GOP donor Harlan Crow. Thomas has since started disclosing trips, but the Senate Judiciary Committee found three additional undisclosed trips between 2017 and 2021.
In a separate controversy, Justice Samuel Alito was recorded by filmmaker Lauren Windsor criticizing media coverage of judicial ethics and expressing conservative views. Alito also faced scrutiny for flying an inverted flag post-2020 election and a “Return to Heaven” flag later.
Other justices, including Sonia Sotomayor and Neil Gorsuch, have been criticized for leveraging their positions for personal gain or engaging in questionable transactions. Chief Justice John Roberts’ wife also came under scrutiny for earning significant commissions from law firm placements. Forbes posted an article that details the scandals that led to this decision by the President, find it here.
Biden’s proposed reforms include:
- No Immunity for Crimes by Presidents: President Biden advocates for a constitutional amendment to ensure that no President, current or former, can claim immunity from federal criminal prosecution for crimes committed while in office. This amendment, called the No One Is Above the Law Amendment, would affirm that the Constitution does not provide any special protection against indictment, trial, conviction, or sentencing based on previous presidential service.
- Supreme Court Term Limits: Biden supports implementing term limits for Supreme Court Justices, similar to the term limits for the Presidency. He proposes a system where a new Justice would be appointed every two years to serve an eighteen-year term. This change aims to ensure regular turnover on the Court, make nominations more predictable, and prevent prolonged influence from any single administration.
- Binding Code of Conduct for Justices: Biden calls for Congress to establish a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices. This code would require Justices to disclose gifts, avoid public political involvement, and recuse themselves from cases with personal or financial conflicts of interest, aligning their ethical obligations with those of other federal judges.
These issues may prove to play a key role as the presidential elections approach in just 99 days. Former President Trump has already weighed in on reports that Biden would announce support for Supreme Court reform on Truth Social earlier in July, calling the proposed reforms “an illegal and unConstitutional [sic] attack on our SACRED Supreme Court.” “The Democrats are attempting to interfere in the Presidential Election, and destroy our Justice System, by attacking their Political Opponent, ME, and our Honorable Supreme Court,” Trump continued.
Vice President and presumed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has unsurprisingly backed Biden’s reforms, stating that the reforms will “restore confidence in the Court, strengthen our democracy, and ensure no one is above the law.”
Implementing term limits and an ethics code for the Supreme Court would necessitate new legislation, but given the current makeup of Congress, this is very unlikely to succeed. Similarly, amending the Constitution to address presidential immunity would face even greater challenges. It would require two-thirds approval from both houses of Congress or a convention initiated by two-thirds of the states, followed by ratification from 38 out of 50 state legislatures.
Biden is expected to discuss these proposals when he delivers remarks in Austin later in the day at the LBJ Presidential Library commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. President Biden is quoted saying that “In America, no one is above the law. In America, the people rule.”
3 BIG THINGS: POLITICS AND POLLING
1. U.S. PRESIDENT BETTING ODDS – HARRIS CONTINUES TO SURGE AMONG BETTORS
Trump: 55.6%
Harris 38.6%
2. U.S. PRESIDENT BATTLE GROUND STATES – TRUMP LEAD SHRINKS vs. HARRIS
Arizona -Trump +5
North Carolina – Trump +3
Nevada – Trump +8.6
Pennsylvania – Trump +1
Georgia – Trump +2
Wisconsin – Trump +0.5
Michigan – Trump +0.5
Trump Slightly Leads Harris Nationwide – Trump +1.7%
3. FIGHT FOR THE U.S. SENATE – DEMOCRATS HOLDING STRONG IN BATTLEGROUND SENATE RACES
Arizona – Gallego +3.4
Michigan – Slotkin +5.8
Montana – Sheehy+1.5
Nevada – Rosen +4
Ohio – Brown +5.2
Pennsylvania – Casey +6.5
Wisconsin – Baldwin +6.2
YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK THIS WEEK
EXPECTED HOUSE FLOOR ACTION
The House is out of session until Monday, September 9th.
SCHEDULED HOUSE HEARINGS
The House Financial Services Oversight and investigations Subcommittee will hold a hearing titled “The Fall of ESG: Scrutinizing the Failed Use of Environmental, Social, and governance Standards and the Influence of Proxy Advisors” on Tuesday, July 30 at 10:00 am.
EXPECTED SENATE FLOOR ACTION
The Senate will consider the following nominations this week: Stacey D. Neumann, of Maine, to be United States District Judge for the District of Maine; Adam B. Landy, of South Carolina, to be a Judge of the United States Tax Court for a term of fifteen years.
The Senate will also consider the KOSA/COPPA 2.0 package.
SCHEDULED SENATE HEARINGS
This week’s hearings of note in the Senate are as follows:
The Senate Armed Services Committee will hold a meeting titled “Hearings to examine the findings and recommendations of the Commission on the National Defense Strategy” on Tuesday, July 30 at 9:30 am.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a meeting titled “Hearings to examine strategic competition with the PRC, focusing on assessing U.S. competitiveness beyond the Indo-Pacific” on Tuesday, July 30 at 10:00 am.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a meeting to “consider S.4753, to reform leasing, permitting, and judicial review for certain energy and minerals projects” on Wednesday, July 31 at 10:00 am.
The Senate Appropriations Committee will hold a meeting to “markup an original bill entitled, “Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act”, an original bill entitled, “Department of Defense Appropriations Act”, an original bill entitled, “Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act”, an original bill entitled, “Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act”, and an original bill entitled, “Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act” on Thursday, August 1 at 9:30 am.