Republican House leadership has its eye on AI, data privacy, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in its newly released emerging tech agenda.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., unveiled the GOP’s agenda – which includes 15 pieces of legislation on a wide array of topics.
“Now more than ever, we must create policies that ensure America beats China over the next decade and beyond by fostering innovation, securing supply chains, and protecting consumers,” Walden and McMorris Rodgers said in a May 12 statement. “These pillars of our legislative agenda unleash free-market ingenuity to spur American leadership and economic growth in the next generation of technology that will define our future.”
The agenda is broken into four objects: advancing and securing emerging technologies; global data innovation and security; advancing innovation across the country; and combating harms through innovation.
Key pieces of legislation include:
- “The Generating Artificial Intelligence Networking Security (GAINS) Act, led by Rep. McMorris Rodgers, ensures the United States develops and implements strategies for artificial intelligence that preserves our values and leadership. Identifies risks to the supply chain and creates plan for mitigating those risks;
- The Smart IoT Act, introduced last May by Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, promotes an IoT strategy at the federal level that streamlines development and adoption;
- The Advancing Facial Recognition Act, led by Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., ensures development of facial recognition technology balances both our leadership role and consumer protections. Identifies and mitigates risks to the supply chain;
- The Internet Application Integrity and Disclosure (Internet Application I.D.) Act, led by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., requires the disclosure of app-makers originating from China.
- The Showing How Isolationism Effects Long-term Development (SHIELD) Act, led by Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., assesses how international data localization laws impact each country’s economy, our economy, and cross-border commerce; [and]
- The Telling Everyone the Location of data Leaving the U.S. (TELL) Act, led by Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., requires disclosure whether China has access to our data transmissions.”
