Congress
Last-ditch pitch for social media bill may fall short
According to Donald Trump Jr., “It’s time for House Republicans to pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP.”
Speaker Mike Johnson disagrees.
Johnson says he remains concerned that the Senate-passed bill, the first serious attempt by Congress to force social media companies to do more to protect kids online, “might lead to further censorship by the government of valid conservative voices” and that more negotiation was needed.
In other words, a Saturday offer from the principal GOP Senate sponsor, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, to make changes to the bill, combined with endorsements from Trump Jr. and Elon Musk, haven’t yet gotten Johnson on board.
But Johnson has softened his “no” a little, saying that if an agreement weren’t possible this year, Republicans could take up the measure again in 2025. “All of us, a hundred percent of us, support the principle behind it, but you’ve got to get this one right,” he said.
Why it matters: Blackburn’s bill would create a “duty of care” requiring social media firms to change design features that addict kids and allow unwanted contact from people they don’t know.Changes she offered over the weekend would limit the regulation of platform design so it only applies to personalized features, and also limit the duty of care to only harms that are related to features that stoke compulsive usage. She also emphasized that her new version does not allow the Federal Trade Commission or any other government entity to go after protected speech, another worry House Republicans have expressed.
But despite a lobbying campaign that also includes parents, advocacy groups, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and attorneys general in over 35 states, Johnson hasn’t relented.
The opponents of the legislation include unusual bedfellows: Facebook parent Meta, tech lobbying group NetChoice, and conservative and liberal groups concerned about speech, including Fight for the Future, the ACLU, and Patriot Voices, an advocacy group started by former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.).
Johnson said that waiting till next year, when Republicans will have unified control of Congress and the White House, would speed negotiations. But that might effectively kill the bill.
Blackburn’s version passed the Senate as part of a two-bill package in a bipartisan 91-3 July vote.
But when the House Energy and Commerce Committee took up another version of the bill in September, the sponsor, Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.), agreed to make changes requested by GOP leaders that proponents of the Senate bill said made it much weaker.
For example, Bilirakis changed the duty-of-care language so that it only applied to the physical health of minors. The surgeon general has found that social media poses a significant danger to kids’ mental health.
Tech industry opponents of the bill want to get rid of the duty-of-care language entirely, arguing it could force them to suppress content.
What’s next: Parents groups that support KOSA are demonstrating on Capitol Hill today, putting up a tree with presents bearing the names of children who the parents say died because of social media.
They are still hoping to convince lawmakers to attach KOSA to end-of-year spending legislation.
Jordain Carney contributed to this story.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is confident Sen. Markwayne Mullin will be confirmed as the next secretary of Homeland Security despite a contentious exchange with fellow GOP Sen. Rand Paul at a hearing Wednesday.
Paul, the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sharply questioned the Oklahoma senator about past remarks that he “understood” why Paul suffered a heinous assault from a neighbor in 2017. Mullin refused to apologize for the remark.
“Those two obviously have some history, and it’s, you know, personal stuff,” Thune said. “They’ve got to work through it. I mean, in the end, this is about the job, and it’s about making sure that we got the right person there. I think Markwayne is the right person for the job.”
Asked if he was still confident Mullin can be confirmed, Thune said, “Yeah.”
Paul has scheduled a committee vote on Mullin for Thursday. While Paul’s vote is in serious doubt, Mullin could win over Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has expressed support for Mullin previously and said Wednesday he would approach the nomination “with an open mind.”
“I haven’t been rocked by some mic-dropping kind of moments,” Fetterman told reporters after the hearing.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin said he regretted calling Alex Pretti “deranged” but stopped short of offering a direct apology to Pretti’s family.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” the Oklahoma Republican said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday to serve as the next Homeland Security secretary. He was referring to his past comments regarding the U.S. citizen killed by federal immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota back in January, who some conservatives in the immediate aftermath labeled a “domestic terrorist.”
It was a stronger concession than Mullin gave just moments earlier, when he refused to apologize for calling Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, a “snake.” Still, when pressed by the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, Mullin would not commit to apologizing to Pretti’s family until the conclusion of an investigation into the incident.
“If I’m proven wrong, then I will,” Mullin said.
Regarding Renee Good, another U.S. citizen killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota earlier this year, Mullin refused to retract comments he made at the time of Good’s death, specifically that agents were justified in killing her. He told BLN in January that agents “had the right to defend themselves.”
He said he would wait for the findings of the investigation into Good’s killing to comment further; Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) countered that the Trump administration is currently blocking state and local inquiries.
A committee vote on Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation as Homeland Security secretary remains on track for Thursday despite a fiery sparring session Wednesday between the Oklahoma Republican and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the chair of the panel that must approve his nomination.
A spokesperson for Paul said after the tense exchange — during which Mullin refused to apologize for comments saying he “understood” why Paul was violently assaulted in 2017 — that the committee vote “is on for tomorrow.”
As chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Paul has wide latitude to schedule action on Mullin’s nomination.
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