With help from John Hendel, Leah Nylen and Rebecca Kern
Editors Note:Morning Tech is a free version of POLITICO Pro Technology's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our subscribers each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the days biggest stories.Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
A message from Charter Communications:
Were proud that Spectrum Internet ranks No. 1 in the U.S. News & World Report 2021-22 Best Rural Internet Service Providers rankings. This recognition underscores our ongoing commitment to connecting more communities from coast to coast, including rural areas. And were just getting started.
Republicans push antitrust bill:A petition to force a floor vote on a piece of bipartisan antitrust legislation is gaining steam in the House.
Mekki mania:Meet Doha Mekki, the No. 2 official in the Department of Justice antitrust division who could wind up leading the case against Google.
Auto airwaves day in court:The spectrum turf wars will continue today as an appeals court hears from automotive trade groups trying to overturn the FCCs decision to open up the 5.9 GHz spectrum.
ITS TUESDAY, JAN. 25. Emily Birnbaum again. Welcome to Morning Tech. Happy Data Privacy Week to all! Personally, I expect that communities around the world will celebrate this important week by not giving a hoot about data privacy.
Contact me on Twitter with lobbying tips @birnbaum_ e or by email at [emailprotected]. Got an event for our calendar? Send details to [emailprotected]. Anything else? Team info below. And dont forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.
ANTITRUST PETITION CHARGES AHEAD The petition led by Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) to discharge H.R. H.R. 3460 (117), the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act of 2021, has received 95 Republican signatures as of Monday double what it had just last week. It also won the endorsement of the House Freedom Caucus, marking the first time that this ultra-conservative group has come out in favor of antitrust legislation.
The goal isnt necessarily to get to 218 signatures, the amount needed to force Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring the petition to the floor. Rather, its a signal from Republicans highlighting how much bipartisan support there could be for reining in tech and their support is particularly important now, since moderate Democrats and some in the California delegation have indicated they would not support the antitrust legislation that the House Judiciary Committee approved last year. Pelosi has not said when she plans to bring those bills to the floor, and its unclear so far if the bills would have enough votes from Democrats if they got a vote now.
Now that weve demonstrated the support needed to move this bill, Im hopeful to see floor action within the month, Buck said in a statement to MT on Monday.
What Bucks thinking: Buck, the top Republican on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, said his goal is to show House leadership that most Republicans are in favor of this. The bill would ensure that tech companies cannot move antitrust cases to friendlier courts, which Republicans have framed as a state sovereignty issue.
I just have to show them how we think we can get there, Buck told MT earlier this month. Its a leverage point to try to get both sides to work together. He recalled an immigration fight in 2018, when centrist Republicans filed a discharge petition to try to force a vote on legislation to codify the policy shielding undocumented immigrants from deportation known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. (Ultimately, that effort failed.) Ive been killing myself trying to gin up support for the bill, Buck said.
Its the narrowest bill of the antitrust package that passed out of the House Judiciary Committee last year. The rest of the package, including bills that would make it easier to break up companies like Facebook and Amazon, would still be in limbo even if H.R. 3460 (117) passed.
Democrats shrug: Antitrust subcommittee Chair David Cicilline (D-R.I.) told MT that he doesnt think the discharge petition is necessary, but that Buck is using it as a way to demonstrate strong bipartisan support for the [antitrust] package, which is fine. Cicilline said hes optimistic the bills will come to the floor this Congress, possibly before fall.
WHY MEKKI IS MAKING WAVES DOJ removed the acting from Doha Mekkis title late last week, making her the permanent No. 2 official at the antitrust division. As principal deputy to Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, Mekki will be the point person for any cases where Kanter is recused potentially making her the decision-maker on the antitrust probes into Google and Apple.
A DOJ attorney for the past seven years, Mekki has been at the forefront of the agencys work on competition in labor markets. She worked on its first case challenging a no-poach agreement between companies and testified before Congress on the issue.
Doha is one of the hardest working and most talented attorneys I have worked with and was one of my most trusted colleagues, Makan Delrahim, former President Donald Trumps top antitrust official, told MT. She was never shy about telling me what she believed and even less frequently suffered fools. The antitrust division is lucky to have her as a leader.
Mekki also brings much-needed diversity to the DOJs front office, which has historically been filled with white men. She will be the third Black person to serve as an antitrust deputy, after Charles James and Leslie Overton, who served in the George H.W. Bush and Obama administrations, respectively, according to the antitrust pub FTC:Watch.
TODAY: COURT TO HEAR SPAT OVER AUTO AIRWAVES The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear today from automotive trade groups trying to overturn the FCCs Trump-era carve-up of the 5.9 GHz automotive safety airwaves. The case marks the latest showcase of the spectrum turf wars that have divided agencies in especially messy ways, starting in the Trump era and continuing into the Biden administration (the recent 5G kerfuffle involving aviation safety being one prime example).
The FCC move under scrutiny today is a 2020 order that sought to expand the types of transportation safety technologies that could use the 5.9 GHz spectrum. It also reserved a slice of the airwaves for Wi-Fi use a long-sought victory for cable and tech companies but one that enraged many transportation industry leaders.
Count DOT among the unhappy: Trump-era Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao had warned the FCC of the fatally flawed premises of the FCC order ahead of the commissions vote on it. Months after that vote, Bidens Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, told lawmakers hes concerned too. But despite this DOT grousing, the executive branch never broadly embraced these critiques or challenged the FCC order through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Justice Department has, in fact, joined the FCCs defense.
Early this month, the court asked the parties to be prepared to discuss the significance of the fact that DOJ is representing the FCC and not DOT.
The Justice Department represents the United States, DOJs Bryan Leitch countered, saying the department joined the FCCs brief in this matter after assessing the merits of these cases and considering all relevant federal interests, including the Commissions policy judgments and the views of executive-branch agencies that participated before the Commission. DOJ told the court on Jan. 14 that the department will have counsel available to discuss interagency issues.
Expect the FCC to stand firm: In its November brief, FCC lawyers said that DOT never challenged the independent agencys traditional authority over the airwaves and argued that it is the Commission (not the [Transportation] Secretary) that has always allocated spectrum, adopted service rules, and issued licenses for vehicular communications.
FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel has for years sided with the push to free some of these airwaves up for Wi-Fi, although as a commissioner, she had criticized the the FCCs sparring with DOT at the end of the Trump years, nodding to similar concerns from Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).
A hint for reading the tea leaves: GOP Commissioner Brendan Carr recently praised a D.C. Circuit ruling in a different case (upholding a Trump-era order freeing 6 GHz airwaves for Wi-Fi) for underscoring the FCCs role as the nations lead spectrum regulator. One of the same judges who participated in that decision the Trump-appointed judge Justin Walker will hear todays case. (Others on todays panel are Cornelia Pillard and Laurence Silberman, appointed by the Obama and Reagan administrations, respectively.)
CHINA BILL INCOMING House lawmakers could release their highly anticipated bill to strengthen competition with China as soon as today, two Capitol Hill officials with knowledge of the negotiations told POLITICOs Gavin Bade.
TECH QUOTE DU JOUR: Big tech uses surveillance advertising to fuel their business model, keeping us in our filter bubbles and spreading misinformation as they silently profit off of our data, tweeted former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, promoting a petition from tech advocacy group Accountable Tech, which is run by Clintons former foreign policy spokesperson, Jesse Lehrich.
NEXT STEPS FOR CHIPS: The Commerce Department began accepting public comment Monday on how to design programs aimed at supporting a strong domestic semiconductor industry. The department is asking for input that will help the government invest in semiconductor manufacturing.
A message from Charter Communications:
Amy Bender, previously vice president and legislative counsel with the tech trade group NCTA, has joined wireless industry trade group CTIA. She was previously a legal adviser in the offices of former FCC Chair Kevin Martin and Commissioner Michael ORielly. Antitrust advocate Zephyr Teachout will take a leave of absence from Fordham Law School to work for New York Attorney General Tish James as a special adviser and senior counsel for economic justice. Devin DeBacker, who was previously deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel, will return to the department as chief of the Foreign Investment Review Section of the National Security Division. Dallas Lawrence, previously head of communications at Roku, has joined Samba TV to lead communications.
Nothing sacred: Lawmakers are expressing concerns about an investigation showing that Christian prayer apps share user data with marketers, BuzzFeed reports.Facebooks internet: Facebook has been charging people in poor countries for internet service that the company advertised as free, according to The Wall Street Journal.
How to succeed in business: A contractor is suing Amazon, alleging the company made it impossible for her business to survive, Protocol reports.
More legal troubles for Google: Attorneys general from D.C., Texas, Washington and Indiana sued Google on Monday, alleging the company deceived consumers to gain access to their location data.
A message from Charter Communications:
Access for all means opportunity for everyone. Thats why were investing billions to extend our network to reach those who need it most. Over the next several years, Charter will build more than 100,000 miles of new U.S. broadband infrastructure that will deliver reliable, high-speed internet access to even more communities from coast to coast. Thats an extension long enough to circle the equator four times.
This $5 billion initiative will connect an FCC-estimated one million currently unserved, mostly rural families and small businesses to reliable internet service with speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
Cant handle the Truth: Trump's "Truth Social" social media platform will use a Silicon Valley AI system to detect hate speech. Fox Business has more.
Speaking of privacy week: Chelsea Manning talked to Coinbase about the sad state of online privacy.
Metas supercomputer: Meta announced its AI Research SuperCluster, which will build a supercomputer that could pave the way to the companys metaverse expansion.
TTYL!
Read the original here:
House GOP amps up pressure to pass antitrust bill - Politico