MORE POWER for March 3rd
1000 MORE's weekly nonpartisan roundup of the most important happenings in federal government, written in a way that doesn't require a law degree to understand, with tools to take action
March 3, 2023
This week in MORE POWER:
Bills to ban TikTok
Potential ESG rule change
Declassifying documents on COVID's origins
Judicial confirmation update
SECURE Notarization Act
Understanding Cyber Security of Mobile Networks Act
The House & Senate were both back in D.C., so it was a busy week on Capitol Hill.
Bills To Stop TikTok
After banning TikTok's use on government devices last year, Congress is now considering at least four bills that would impact American users of TikTok. Legislators are targeting TikTok, and its parent company ByteDance, due to the fact that the Chinese government is likely able to access our data through the platform.
Congress could outlaw it through several bills:
No TikTok on United States Devices Act - A bill championed by Senator Josh Hawley, (R-MO) would ban the platform from operating in the United States. No users, government or otherwise, would be able to access TikTok.
Terminate TikTok on Campus Act - Rep. Brian Babin, (R-TX) is leading the effort to pass a bill that would ban the use of TikTok on university issued devices on campuses that receive federal funding.
Social Media Child Protection Act - Prompted by President Joe Biden's remarks on the child and teen mental health crisis within the SOTU speech, a bill by Rep. Chris Stewart, (R-UT) would force all social media companies to stop children under the age of 16 from accessing social media.
ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act - This bill, which is bipartisan, focuses on threats from foreign adversaries. It is the most proactive of these bills, as it considers that while TikTok is the issue at hand, there could be additional social media companies in the future with the potential to influence elections or use data for nefarious purposes.
All of these bills have been introduced in Congress, but have not yet been scheduled for a vote. You can use 1000 MORE to read more about these bills and contact your representatives.
Potential ESG Rule Change
Traditionally, the only thing people responsible for investing retirement funds, known as fiduciaries, had to consider in deciding where to invest was how much money a particular investment would make. That changed in December, when the Department of Labor issued a rule allowing fiduciaries to also consider factors like climate and other benefits to society, collectively known as "ESG" (environmental, social and governance), in their decision about a likely return on investment.
Knowing that this was coming, conservative organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom have been campaigning hard to convince Congress and the public that "ESG is socialism," arguing that considering factors like climate when analyzing an investment's potential was political, rather than strategic.
This week, Congress passed a joint resolution - H.J.Res. 30 - to reverse the Labor Department's December rule. The resolution passed both chambers, with the Senate voting 50-46 just one day after the House passed it 216-204. Biden has promised to veto the bill, arguing that the rule was "not a mandate," saying that "it does not require any fiduciary to make investment decisions based solely on ESG factors. The rule simply makes sure that retirement plan fiduciaries must engage in a risk and return analysis of their investment decisions and recognizes that these factors can be relevant to that analysis." Biden has signaled he will veto the resolution when it reaches his desk, which would be his first veto as president.
Have a view on this that you would like to share with the President?
The lab, or the market?
Just How Did COVID-19 Start?
Since 2020, there has been a lot of back and forth from the federal government about the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Even different departments within the Biden administration keep issuing conflicting conclusions, sometimes with low confidence in their own findings due to limited available information or information of a low quality, and the White House has said it has not yet reached a consensus opinion.
Frustrated with the lack of clarity, Congress is working to make things more transparent. This week the Senate voted to pass the COVID–19 Origin Act which would declassify all government documents on the origins of COVID. Next it will come up for a vote in the House.
More History Making Jurists Confirmed
This week Vice President Kamala Harris cast two tiebreaking votes to confirm more Biden judicial nominees. This resulted in the confirmation of the first Latina federal judge in Massachusetts, former public defender Margaret Guzman and another Latina judge in California, Oakland civil rights attorney Araceli Martínez-Olguín.
The Senate also approved Jamar K. Walker, of Virginia, as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, who will be the first LGBTQ+ federal judge in Virginia, Jonathan J. C. Grey, of Michigan, to be U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan, and Colleen R. Lawless, of Illinois, to be U.S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois.
Last week, the Senate approved Seattle trial lawyer Jamal Whitehead, the first Biden judicial nominee with a disclosed disability, to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Have a view on these nominees you would like to share?
SECURE Notarization Act
During the pandemic, so many things that had previously been done offline had to move into the digital world. Notarizing documents was among them. But for people who needed notarized documents to be recognized across state lines, this became a problem, as there were no uniform standards.
The Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic Notarization Act, or the SECURE Notarization Act would change that. It is a bipartisan bill that would approve notaries public to perform electronic notarizations and set up standards for electronic and remote notarizations that occur in or affect interstate commerce.
Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act
You may have noticed that cybersecurity is a hot topic in Congress right now. The Understanding Cybersecurity of Mobile Networks Act is a bill that would increase Congress' understanding of weaknesses in American mobile networks that could be leveraged by foreign adversaries. In the last term of Congress, it passed the House but died in the Senate. It is now up for a vote in the House.
