A House resolution calls on the tech industry to create an “industry-run rating board to streamline age-appropriate app ratings.” Introduced Friday by Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Mike Johnson, R-La., it calls for a board created by the tech industry and app developers to “enforce consistent and accurate age and content ratings of apps on internet-ready devices.” It urges tech platforms to “to ensure the implementation of user-friendly and streamlined parental controls on devices used by minors.” Parents are “left in the dark” because app ratings are “misleading or inaccurate,” said the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.

Bipartisan legislation introduced Thursday would stop law enforcement from using border search exceptions to conduct warrantless searches of Americans’ phones, laptops and other electronics devices. Introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., the Protecting Data at the Border Act would provide statutory clarity, extending rights awarded in Riley v. California. Law enforcement would be required to disclose to U.S. entrants their rights before giving up online account information or before they allow access to their devices. Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., is introducing companion legislation in the House.

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced by voice vote Thursday legislation that would strengthen the right of state attorneys general to litigate antitrust cases in courts of their choosing. S-1787, the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act (see 2109150054), would strengthen AG discretion over defendants seeking to move cases to preferred venues. The House Judiciary Committee in June passed companion legislation from House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., and ranking member Ken Buck, R-Colo. (see 2106240071). The bill “will allow for more efficient and effective antitrust enforcement by state attorneys general, which is good for competition and consumers,” said Senate Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in a statement. The bill “will give a much-needed boost to State antitrust enforcement actions, and will respect States’ sovereignty in their efforts to protect their citizens from abusive monopolists,” said ranking member Mike Lee, R-Utah, who co-authored the plan.

Congress should “raise or suspend” the debt limit as it has done about 80 times since 1960 “and protect the full faith and credit” of the U.S., five tech associations wrote the House and Senate leadership Monday. Defaulting on the government’s obligations “could undermine the U.S. dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency, spark an economic downturn, increase future deficits, and threaten the status of Treasury bonds as the world’s safest asset,” said the Information Technology Industry Council, Internet Association, Semi, Semiconductor Industry Association and TechNet: “Even the threat of default could cause a further downgrade in the U.S. credit rating, which would not only imperil the fragile economic recovery, but raise debt costs for millions of businesses and consumers.”

Congress should pass the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust legislative package and update U.S. antitrust law, state attorneys general wrote Senate and House leaders Thursday (see 2106240071). New York's Letitia James (D) co-signed the letter with Colorado’s Phil Weiser (D), Nebraska’s Doug Peterson (R) and Tennessee’s Herbert Slatery (R). AGs from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Washington, D.C., and Guam signed. “A comprehensive update of federal antitrust laws has not occurred in decades,” they wrote, drawing attention to “decreased competition in important sectors and undue judicial skepticism towards robust enforcement.”

Public Knowledge and 121 other groups urged the Senate Commerce Committee Friday to include a voucher program in the Build Back Better Act budget reconciliation package aimed at subsidizing computers and other devices so low-income families can access broadband. Commerce Democrats in August eyed up to $10 billion for internet-enabled devices in reconciliation (see 2109020072). Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Rep. Donald McEachin, D-Va., filed the Device Access for Every American Act, which proposes $5 billion for device vouchers. It’s “difficult or impossible” for people to apply for jobs, complete schoolwork or fill out government forms “with just a mobile device or no device,” the groups said in a letter to Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and ranking member Roger Wicker, R-Miss. “Even if a household lacks home internet, computers and tablets enable consumers to leverage private and public Wi-Fi networks across their communities.”

Legislation that would prevent states from enacting more stringent “Made in USA” labeling rules than those in place at the FTC passed the Senate Wednesday by unanimous consent. There's no House companion bill yet for the Reinforcing American-Made Products Act. S-297 was co-sponsored by Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Angus King, I-Maine. “Unfortunately, some states have made it unnecessarily difficult for businesses to use the ‘Made in USA’ label and empowered trial lawyers to get rich through differing labeling standards,” said King when the bill was introduced in February. “This bill solves that problem by making one national standard for the ‘Made in USA’ label.”

Facebook should abandon plans to develop an Instagram for kids, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote Wednesday with Reps. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., and Lori Trahan, D-Mass. Their letter follows reports about internal documents showing the company knew about a “connection between Instagram and mental health problems among young users,” the lawmakers said. The internal research shows the app contributes to body image and mental health problems, they said: The Wall Street Journal article “focuses on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light,” Instagram said. The company stands by the research, which helps inform the company’s work to address these issues, it said.

The House should pass the Judiciary Committee’s antitrust legislative package, nearly 60 advocates wrote House leaders Thursday (see 2106240071). Public Citizen, the Center for Digital Democracy, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Open Markets Institute and Public Knowledge signed. “Monopoly power lowers wages, reduces innovation and entrepreneurship, exacerbates income and regional inequality, undermines the free press, and perpetuates toxic systems of racial, gender, and class dominance,” they wrote. “Big Tech monopolies are at the center of many of these problems.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., threatened 35 telecom and social media companies Tuesday night not to comply with a request from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection to preserve records related to the attack, including those relating to some members of Congress. The companies receiving the Jan. 6 committee’s request include Apple, AT&T, Facebook, Google, T-Mobile, Twitter and Verizon. House Democratic leaders’ “attempts to strong-arm private companies to turn over individuals’ private data would put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democrat politicians,” McCarthy said. “If these companies comply … they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate” in the U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., later said on Fox News that telecom companies that comply with the Jan 6 committee “will be shut down.” The Jan. 6 committee has “asked companies not to destroy records that may help answer questions for the American people,” a spokesperson for the committee emailed. “The committee’s efforts won’t be deterred by those who want to whitewash or cover up the events of January 6th, or obstruct our investigation.”