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In addition to beefing up oversight of regulators they believe have been too lax on the tech and telecom industry, Democrats are also making it a top priority to craft internet privacy rules. There has been increasing bipartisan support for a national privacy law in recent months following a string of massive data scandals and breaches at major companies.
Supreme Court fight over Kavanaugh got lots of attention, but most federal court action is elsewhere
Republicans are ecstatic and Democrats are livid about Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation as a Supreme Court justice. But while the Supreme Court is important, many Americans tend to exaggerate its powers. Democrats still firmly control the nation’s district courts and circuit courts of appeals, where virtually all federal judicial decisions are made.
The bill aims to do a number of things, including establishing an AI in government advisory board, directing the White House Office of Management and Budget to look into AI as part of the federal data strategy, getting the Office of Personnel Management to look at what kinds of employee skills are necessary for AI competence in government and expanding “an office” at the General Services Administration that will provide expertise, do research and “promote U.S. competitiveness.”
With midterm elections just over a month away, Congress averted another government shutdown on Wednesday by the House of Representatives passing 12 appropriations bills and sending the legislation to the president. The Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act of 2019 provides nearly $71.5 billion to the Department of Education, which is a $581 increase from the fiscal year 2018.
The Trump administration on Thursday announced that the U.S. will now officially act to deter and respond to cyberattacks with offensive actions against foreign adversaries. The U.S.'s new cyber strategy, signed by President Trump and now in effect, marks the federal government officially taking a more aggressive approach to cyber threats presented from across the globe.
Although science may seem to be underappreciated in D.C., demand in the federal government for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) expertise remains high. Each September since 1973, the Science & Technology Policy Fellowships program has responded to this pressing need by bringing scientists and engineers to Washington for a yearlong placement.
Twitter shares fell 6 percent Wednesday as CEO Jack Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Dorsey testified alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg about election meddling and abuse on their platforms. Google was also invited to testify, but the tech giant declined to send its CEO or parent company Alphabet's CEO.
Chairman Pai published a wide-ranging blog post on Medium Tuesday that discussed social media giants’ role in privacy and censorship ahead of Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey’s hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s hearing on Wednesday.
A Chinese electronics company called Hikvision, partly owned by the Communist government, was one of several such firms banned from working for the U.S. government under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) signed into law by President Trump on Monday. Hikvision is reportedly assembling a powerhouse team of Washington lobbyists to fight back, a battle that pits the Chinese and American models of politicized economics against each other on America’s home turf.
China's Communist Party is intensifying covert influence operations in the United States that include funding Washington think tanks and coercing Chinese Americans, according to a congressional commission report. The influence operations are conducted by the United Front Work Department, a Central Committee organ that employs tens of thousands of operatives who seek to use both overt and covert operations to promote Communist Party policies.