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With the 113th Congress finally sworn in, the recently shuffled House Judiciary Committee is the panel that most tech policy stakeholders are watching the closest. The committee was ground zero for last year's most divisive debate on any tech issue: the battle over the online piracy bills SOPA and PIPA. Main SOPA sponsor and former Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, has moved on, but his replacement, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., added the Internet at large to the jurisdiction of the Intellectual Property Subcommittee, an indication that he remains a strong ally of the content creators. However, the backlash from SOPA spooked both lawmakers and content creators, and probably nixed any further attempts to legislate greater online copyright protections in the near future. Any attempts to ramp up piracy enforcement will most likely have to originate within the Obama administration, which has been particularly hawkish on intellectual property issues compared to its predecessors.
But the Judiciary Committee will also be center of the upcoming debate on overhauling immigration policy, which has been a top priority of Silicon Valley for almost two decades. Senior House Democrats such as Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., are lining up to take the lead on what is expected to be the strongest push in recent memory for a comprehensive rewrite of immigration rules. With Republicans still reeling from their loss in the presidential election, expect the rhetoric around this controversial issue to be noticeably toned down from past debates, due in large part to the growing political clout of Hispanics.
For tech companies, comprehensive immigration legislation would almost certainly include some measure aimed at encouraging foreign students that earn graduate degrees in STEM fields at American universities to stay in the country after graduation. Tech companies argue that forcing such individuals to leave the U.S. after earning their degrees is counterproductive and costs the nation both jobs and innovation. Both parties support expanding skilled immigration quotas, with Republicans preferring to see the expansion come at the expense of the regular visa lottery program, while Democrats would like to preserve the lottery program while increasing the amount of visas for skilled immigrants. Other ideas, such as a visa for entrepreneurs and job creators, have been discussed, but any bipartisan deal will have to include a measure to ensure tech companies have access to the foreign scientists and engineers they claim are in dire need. The main roadblock will be the two sides coming to an agreement on what to do about the large number of immigrants that currently reside in the U.S. without proper visas — a far more complicated and divisive debate.
Roll Call Op-Ed: John Warren Kindt Argues Online Gambling Will Cripple the World's Financial Systems Eshoo Said CALM Act Has Many Fans: Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., has been in Congress for almost 20 years, but she's never received more positive feedback than she has in response to the recently-implemented CALM Act, which requires TV commercials to be the same volume as the shows they interrupt. The FCC rules took effect last month and the Commission has developed an online complaint form for consumers to complain about specific loud commercials. The agency plans to rely on consumer complaints for smaller cable companies, while performing spot checks for larger cable providers. Regardless, for consumers sick of being blasted by pitches for the latest gadget finally have recourse, which should only earn Eshoo more fans in TV Land. Right-Leaning Data Targeting Firm Keeps Growing: This week's edition of CQ Weekly takes a look at Jordan Lieberman of CampaignGrid, a right-leaning data targeting firm that has increased its staff from eight to 30 in the past two years. Lieberman manages sales and marketing for the firm in Washington, where he is already taking calls for the 2014 races. Several mainstream outlets have documents how the Democrats and the White House in particular have used data mining to build an extremely effective and comprehensive voter turnout organization, which helped power President Obama to victory in November's election. The Republicans have shown a capacity to catch up quickly when it comes to technology, most notably on social media after the Democrats enjoyed a decided advantage online in 2008. So expect data mining and voter targeting to be the top topic of conversation among conservative activists and GOP operatives over the next two years ahead of the mid-term elections. On the Move: The Motion Picture Association of America announced the hiring of Diane Strahan as chief operating officer on Friday. Strahan had been senior vice president at Neustar; she will oversee staff and operations at the MPAA. Tech EB on TV: Yours truly took the time last week to preview the top tech and telecom policy issues facing the 113th Congress for C-SPAN's The Communicators. You can catch the show tonight at 8 on C-SPAN 2, or just watch the video online here.