House Digital Commerce Subcommittee Chairman Wants 'Soft Touch' Approach on Tech
The House Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection Subcommittee will maintain a “soft touch” approach during the 115th Congress in handling of IoT and other emerging technologies, Chairman Bob Latta, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday evening. House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., named Latta in early January to head the subcommittee, which was previously called the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee (see 1701060063). Latta demurred from delving deeply into his approach on a bevy of potential FTC policy issues over which his subcommittee has jurisdiction.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Digital Commerce may again examine the FTC’s consumer protection authority with an eye to “make sure there’s a cost-benefit out there,” Latta said. The subcommittee also may be interested in examining FTC transparency and ways to balance the need for consumer protections and job creation in a way that will “keep things moving,” he said. The subcommittee will work with other committees and President Donald Trump's administration when deciding how to proceed on FTC issues like a sought-after rescission of the common-carrier exemption that says the agency can't regulate telecom companies (see 1701230043), Latta said. Walden told reporters House Commerce is likely to handle FCC ISP privacy rules via a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval, as expected (see 1701310071 and 1702070074).
Latta confirmed he met with acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen but said the meeting was primarily about “getting to know” her rather than focusing on specific issues. A more detailed discussion about the subcommittee’s agenda on FTC issues will need to wait until the commission’s three vacant seats are filled, Latta said. The agency will have three vacancies when former Chairwoman Edith Ramirez leaves the commission Friday. Trump’s administration hasn't provided a timetable for filling the three slots, which will include two Republicans and a Democrat, Latta said. “It’s going to be a very interesting Congress.”
House Digital Commerce will start its dive into tech issues next week with a Feb. 14 hearing on autonomous vehicles, Latta said. Witnesses will include General Motors Vice President-Global Strategy Mike Ableson, Volvo Vice President-Government Affairs Anders Kärrberg, Lyft Vice President-Public Policy Joseph Okpaku and Toyota Research Institute CEO Gill Pratt, a committee aide said. The hearing is to begin at 10:15 a.m. in 2123 Rayburn. The subcommittee is starting with autonomous vehicles because it’s a technology in which the private sector has a clear vision of “what they see as the future,” Latta said.
Latta intends to continue his “soft touch” approach to autonomous vehicles and other emerging technologies because deployment of those technologies is “not government-driven,” Latta said: “One of the things we don’t want to see is the government set a one-size-fits-all” policy on such technologies. Silicon Valley doesn’t travel to Washington, D.C., “to ask ‘may I create this app in this manner?’” Latta said. “Safety clearly matters, but what we really want to drive is innovation in this space. We want that innovation to occur in America because that will mean high-tech jobs, good-paying jobs and we’ll have the technology.”
The focus on IoT will be all-encompassing because “basically everything” supporting the technology falls within the subcommittee’s purview, Latta said. If autonomous vehicles “can’t be talking to one another, then you’ve got a problem,” he said. Congress’ focus should remain on how it can help drive innovation because “sometimes on the regulatory side we’re stuck at the present, we’re not looking down the road” while tech companies are looking at where technologies will be in five-to-10 years.
House Digital Commerce will also continue to be interested in IoT cybersecurity given the October distributed denial of service attacks against Dyn, Latta and Walden said. A November hearing focused partly on how the connected devices industry addresses cyber risks when developing new products and how companies assume responsibility for those risks (see 1611150059). House Digital Commerce will continue to examine how public-private partnerships and information sharing can aid in improving IoT cybersecurity risk management because “we’re not going to see less cyberattacks, we’re going to see more cyberattacks,” Latta said. “That’s the way things are going.” House Commerce generally will follow the advice of witnesses in past cybersecurity hearings and “first do no harm,” Walden said.