Congress
Child safety advocates blast White House talks that let tech CEOs sidestep hearing
The family whose son inspired legislation to crack down on the exploitation of children on social media is condemning a White House intervention that secured administration support for a child online safety package — while allowing Meta and Google to send lower-level executives to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in place of their CEOs.
“It was our understanding that this legislation was never intended to become a political bargaining chip,” Tania and Tim Woods wrote in a Wednesday letter obtained by Blue Light News sent to Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), other members of the committee and the White House. “It was created because children have died.”
James Woods, for whom the James T. Woods Act was named, was a 17-year-old Instagram user who died by suicide after being sexually extorted on the platform. His parents, Tania and Tim Woods, have since campaigned for tougher laws to prevent and penalize exploitation of children online — like the legislative package pending before the Judiciary Committee that would strengthen sentencing and criminal laws to help law enforcement prosecute individuals and groups that manipulate children on the internet.
Grassley has been working hard to advance the package, while also calling on the CEOs of Meta, Google, TikTok and Snap to testify before his committee about child online safety practices, among other topics.
But, after Meta representatives met with White House staff to express concerns about the hearing, the administration brokered a deal with Grassley that allowed lower-level executives at Meta and Google to testify in place of their CEOs in exchange for White House support of the James T. Woods Act, five people with knowledge of the events previously told Blue Light News.
Calling on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the committee, Tania and Tim Woods criticized the deal in their letter Wednesday, calling it “devastating for families like ours because it suggests that access and influence may carry more weight than the lives of children.”
“Mark Zuckerberg should not be negotiating the future of child safety legislation,” they wrote. “He should be answering for the role Meta has played in exposing children to predators and for the countless opportunities the company has had to make its platforms safer.”
Grassley’s Press Secretary Hannah Akey in a statement said the committee chair has worked hard with impacted families, law enforcement and child safety organizations to draft legislation to combat online child exploitation.
“The James T. Woods Act is a hugely bipartisan and widely supported bill that tackles disgusting crimes harming children nationwide … [Grassley] will continue his ongoing investigations of Big Tech, while also passing laws that will protect children across America,” Akey added.
Meta, Durbin and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
House Republican leaders are pushing ahead with a vote on a stopgap funding bill Tuesday — even if the vote could mean freezing the House floor for the rest of the week.
Several House Republicans angry over how GOP leaders have handled the spending legislation are threatening to tank a subsequent vote on a procedural measure setting up debate on several additional bills. The funding bill is expected to get a vote first under special fast-track procedures, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said GOP leaders will “handle each vote as it happens.”
“We know [procedural votes] are always difficult with a small, small majority, and you look at attendance and all those things, but at the end of the day, the [continuing resolution], it’s the first vote,” Scalise told reporters Tuesday. “That’s really important to avoid a government shutdown, and then we’ll … take it from there.”
Many of the Republicans threatening a floor revolt are upset with a provision delaying a hemp products ban. That includes Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, a former Rules Committee chair, who said he plans to vote against the procedural measure that the panel advanced on Monday.
The Texas Republican is not typically one to defy leadership and said “if they took out the language on this hemp issue” he would support the rule.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the House Freedom Caucus, also said he plans to vote against the bill, as did Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who sent a letter to top Republicans arguing the continuing resolution would extend taxpayer dollars for abortion services. Other GOP hard-liners, such as Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, were noncommittal on the key vote.
House GOP leaders appear to be watching the absences on both sides. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said in an interview Tuesday “we’ll see” if the rule is adopted, pointing to the dozens of members who skipped votes Monday night.
Several Republicans are already speculating the House could head home early if the stopgap funding bill is passed and holdouts stymie the rest of the legislative agenda. So far, GOP leaders aren’t indicating a change of plans.
“We’re moving forward to continue working as long as we can keep getting the agenda moved,” Scalise said. “We have other things we want to do.”
Speaker Mike Johnson told a closed-door meeting of senior House Republicans on Monday night that he met with GOP megadonor Elon Musk in Austin last week, according to two people who were in the room, as House GOP leaders hope he’ll bolster their campaign efforts in key battlegrounds.
Blue Light News first reported the planned meeting between Johnson, Musk and some other Republicans last week. Republicans involved in the matter are hopeful Musk will start unleashing a portion of the $100 million-plus he reportedly plans to spend on the midterms to boost House Republicans through his super PAC, America PAC — likely in the form of field organizing support and other resources.
Johnson didn’t say in the Monday meeting whether Musk made any commitments during the meeting in Austin last Friday, which came as the speaker barnstormed Texas battleground races that will help determine House control next year. But Republicans in the room took it as a suggestion Musk could unleash spending on their behalf, according to the two people.
A spokesperson for America PAC did not respond to an inquiry. A spokesperson for Johnson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
How much trouble is the GOP leadership floor plan in? Rep. Pete Sessions of Texas, a former Rules Committee chair who is not in the habit of defying party leaders, said he plans to vote against the procedural measure advanced by the panel last night. He cited concerns about the delay of a hemp products ban in the short-term spending bill leaders want to pass Tuesday.
“I think they’ve got to change it,” Sessions said. “Let’s just make it a clean [continuing resolution]. I’ll vote for that.”
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