EXCLUSIVE: DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE MERGER BAN — Under legislation being introduced today by Democrats in both chambers, mergers worth more than $5 billion or those leading to high market shares — the kinds of deals that occur often in the tech industry — could be automatically blocked by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission without the need to go to court. The "Prohibiting Anticompetitive Mergers Act," sponsored by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), would also let these agencies retroactively reverse mergers if they later lead to a greater than 50 percent market share or "materially harm" workers, consumers or small businesses. The bill would require the FTC and DOJ to overhaul their merger processes to make it much harder for companies to challenge their decisions. Blocked mergers could still be appealed in federal court, but such a merger would only be allowed to proceed if the relevant agency was found to have acted in an "arbitrary or capricious" manner in stopping it. Seven senators and 11 House members — all part of the Democratic caucus — signed on as co-sponsors, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). — Conspicuously absent: The bill's sponsor list does not include Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) or Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.), who are each helming expansive tech-related antitrust efforts in their respective chambers. And given slim Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate, the Warren-Jones bill will likely have a tough time becoming law this legislative cycle. TECH INDUSTRY BOOSTS (SOME) STATE PRIVACY BILLS: After years spent fighting against a patchwork of state privacy laws, the tech industry seems to have decided that if it can't always stop the bills, it can at least try to co-opt them. The Iowa House of Representatives, with much of the tech industry's blessing, passed data privacy legislation on Monday by a vote of 91-2. The bill gives companies 30 days to fix privacy violations before the state can bring enforcement actions, and exempts nonprofits and some financial institutions. It's the second major state to push forward an industry-influenced privacy bill this month, after the Utah legislature sent its own bill to the governor's desk in early March. An Iowa Senate committee is expected to vote on advancing the state House bill by Friday. "This is part of a broader industry strategy to push weak bills on the state level," said Maureen Mahoney, a senior policy analyst at nonprofit advocacy group Consumer Reports. She said the intended effect may be "to lower the bar for what's possible to achieve" in Washington. — Lobbyists swarm: Mahoney said the Iowa bill was recently "weakened" through an amendment process so that it conformed more closely to the Utah bill. According to Mahoney, the version that passed the Iowa House on Monday watered down the definition of data sales and nixed consumers' ability to correct or opt in to the processing of sensitive data. She said two tech industry groups in particular — TechNet and the State Privacy and Security Coalition — have been especially active in Utah and Iowa. A TechNet representative, which represents Google, Amazon and other large tech companies, testified in favor of the Utah bill ahead of its passage. Carl Holshouser, TechNet's head of operations and strategic initiatives, said the group "continues to monitor the proposed privacy legislation in Iowa" — but Steve Kidera, a TechNet spokesperson, would not say whether the group actively lobbied in favor of that legislation. The SPSC, a little-known tech lobbying group that doesn't even have a website, registered lobbyist Anton van Seventer, from the firm DLA Piper, in Utah on March 2 — just before the Utah bill's final passage. In January the group also registered Andrew Kingman, another DLA Piper lobbyist and a former senior manager for TikTok's state policy efforts, in Iowa. Kingman, who said he leads SPSC as its general counsel, directed MT to Mollie Ross, the head of operations at the Technology Association of Iowa, a trade group. Ross said her group is "very supportive" of the Iowa privacy bill, and explained the tech industry feels compelled to act at the state level while Washington dithers. "We felt like, you know, that's not happening — or at least it's not happening yet," Ross said of federal privacy legislation. "So we need to take a step forward." — Virginia on their minds: The tech lobby may have been inspired to promote its own industry-friendly state laws following its success in Virginia, which in 2021 became the second state to pass privacy legislation after California (Colorado passed its own bill later that year). While lobbyists have lamented the California bill's passage, saying its requirements are too onerous, they've generally praised Virginia's bill. — Meanwhile, in Nashville: At a markup held by the Tennessee Senate's Labor and Commerce Committee on Tuesday, industry lobbyists attacked one Republican-led privacy bill for not quite conforming to Virginia or Utah's privacy frameworks. Carl Szabo, the vice president and general counsel for tech lobbying group NetChoice, testified that despite changes made by the sponsors at the tech industry's urging, the Tennessee bill would still cost too much for businesses to implement. "It's close, as the sponsor said, to the Virginia model ... [and] it's close to the Utah model," Szabo said. "But unfortunately, like in horseshoes and hand grenades, close doesn't always cut it." In an apparent surprise to Mahoney and other consumer advocates — who say the legislation was already too soft on tech companies — the Tennessee bill failed in the Senate committee in a 6-3 vote, after some Republican lawmakers expressed worries it would be too tough on businesses. FIRST IN MT: CTA BACKS TRADE, TECH RESTRICTIONS ON RUSSIA: Ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's address to Congress this morning, the Consumer Technology Association, a powerful tech industry trade group, announced its board has voted to support the decision by the U.S. and its allies to impose strong tech sanctions on Russia and revoke its most-favored-nation trade status. CTA praised those tech companies who "voluntarily refused" to make their products or services available in Russia, and urged the broader industry to "fully comply" with U.S. sanctions. THE WIRELESS TASK AWAITING CONGRESS THIS YEAR — At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing slated for today on 5G, lawmakers will look to tackle one of the most pressing telecom tasks they face ahead the midterms. That task, of course, is renewing the FCC's authority to auction off wireless airwaves — a mechanism the commission has found to be an efficient (and highly lucrative) approach to deciding who can use what spectrum. The FCC authority, as Democratic committee staff note in their hearing memo, is set to expire on Sept. 30. That leaves Congress with a tight window to extend those powers. — Go, Congress, go: A broad swath of witnesses at today's hearing — including representatives for wireless trade group CTIA, progressive advocacy group Public Knowledge and tech companies Intel, HTC and Cisco — will nudge lawmakers to reup the FCC's spectrum auction authorities. "Auction authority has become a key tool in how the FCC conducts its work in a variety of contexts, and pays dividends many times over," Cisco senior director Mary Brown plans to say, per her written testimony. — GOP on board: "Providing certainty to both industry and government agencies for ongoing and future spectrum reallocations and auctions is a top priority," House Energy and Commerce ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) plans to say in her opening statement. She'll also call for smoother interagency coordination so policymakers avoid "costly fights" like the recent 5G aviation fracas (a bipartisan priority). — Wrinkle to watch: Expect debate over what new provisions Congress could slip into an auction authority bill, like plans to earmark auction revenue for upgrading 911 technologies or promoting digital inclusion efforts. FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel recently urged Congress to set aside money for the former, while Public Knowledge's Greg Guice will press for the latter in his testimony today. FIRST IN MT: MATSUI SETS SIGHTS ON FREEING 7 GHZ — Congressional Spectrum Caucus co-Chair Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) is urging the Biden administration to do a "fulsome" report on the 7 GHz band of spectrum. That swath is currently used by various agencies, but in a new letter, Matsui suggests the spectrum could be freed up for use by the private sector. She cites a recent call from Rosenworcel to take a look at the issue amid planning for 6G wireless.
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