House Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told us Tuesday night that he doesn’t see it as a setback that several Senate Commerce Committee Republicans want to pursue alternatives to parts of the House panel’s budget reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), even as some congressional DOD supporters raised their own objections to the measure. House Commerce cleared its spectrum and AI reconciliation language early Wednesday on a party-line, 29-24 vote after Democrats unsuccessfully floated a handful of amendments that reflected their objection to using future FCC auction proceeds as an offset for extending the 2017 tax cuts and other GOP priorities.
While the U.S. House this week moved ahead with a plan for a 10-year moratorium on AI laws, the Connecticut Senate supported a bill that would establish AI requirements. However, in the first state to enact an AI law, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) supported federal preemption.
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The Senate Finance Committee's top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, said he thinks Republicans in Congress will act to reverse some of the tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed -- if they hear enough outrage from Republican base voters.
The Court of International Trade on May 13 heard arguments in the lead case on the president's ability to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Judges Jane Restani, Gary Katzmann and Timothy Reif pressed counsel for the plaintiffs, the Liberty Justice Center's Jeffrey Schwab, and DOJ attorney Eric Hamilton on whether the court can review whether a declared emergency is "unusual and extraordinary," as well as the applicability of Yoshida International v. U.S., a key precedential decision on the issue, and whether the major questions doctrine applies and controls the case (V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, CIT # 25-00066).
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz of Texas is holding off on publicly endorsing or opposing the House Commerce Committee's reconciliation package spectrum proposal (see 2505120058), but he and some other fellow panel Republicans are already looking at potential changes if it emerges from the lower chamber as currently written. House Commerce hadn't yet tackled the reconciliation measure’s spectrum language Tuesday afternoon as panel members traded barbs about the legislation’s proposed Medicaid cuts.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., are asking the Trump administration to share more information about their negotiations with countries after the president imposed emergency tariffs on every country.
In seeking transfer of an International Emergency Economic Powers Act case to the Court of International Trade, the U.S. said May 8 that such a transfer is necessary even when “there is doubt” about CIT’s jurisdiction. If a case’s merits must be decided first, this would “effectively” destroy CIT’s exclusive jurisdiction over tariff matters, it said (State of California v. Donald J. Trump, N.D. Cal. # 3:25-03372).
A bill being considered in the House Ways and Means Committee that would extend Trump tax cuts that would otherwise expire at the end of the year is looking to international trade to pay for part of the cost of income tax reductions. The bill also adds new tax breaks, such as on overtime pay and tips.
Massachusetts senators advanced a comprehensive privacy bill that includes a private right of action and Maryland-like data-minimization requirements. On Monday, the Senate side of the legislature’s joint Advanced Information Technology Committee advanced to the Ways and Means Committee a new draft of the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act (S-2516) that replaces bills by the committee’s Senate Chair Michael Moore (D), Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem (D) and Sen. William Driscoll (D). Some alternatives remain pending, including legislation by Sen. Barry Finegold (D), his spokesperson told Privacy Daily.