The compromise package negotiated between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy leaves neither Republicans nor Democrats fully pleased with the outcome. But the result, after weeks of hard-fought budget negotiations, shelves the volatile debt ceiling issue that risked upending the U.S. and global economy until 2025 after the next presidential election.
Rejecting a demand by President Trump, the Senate on Friday passed a defense-spending bill that doesn’t include a repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The House voted in favor of a similar defense-spending bill earlier in the week. Both chambers passed the bills with veto-proof majorities.
A divided Senate has begun the process of voting on Nathan Simington’s nomination to the FCC, expected to draw plenty of floor pushback from unhappy Democrats before a final vote later in the day.
Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia unleashed her first full-scale TV attack ads on Democratic challenger the Rev. Raphael Warnock on Thursday, as the final battle for control of the U.S. Senate intensifies ahead of their January runoff.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) introduced legislation on Wednesday to prohibit internet providers from blocking or slowing content, in an effort to restore some of the net neutrality rules repealed by the FCC in December.
Exclusives
In the latest sign that music copyright reform could be on the horizon, a Senate version of the Music Modernization Act is expected to be filed on Wednesday. The Senate bill follows the House version filed in December. The legislation aims to improve digital royalty payouts to songwriters and publishers, while also greatly reducing the legal liability that streaming companies like Spotify and Apple Music have faced to license songs for use on their services. The NAB opposes some of its provisions.
The Senate on Thursday confirmed Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Brendan Carr for seats on the FCC but did not yet reconfirm GOP Chairman Ajit Pai to another term.
A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill Monday that would grandfather current joint sales agreements between TV stations, overturning an FCC rule that makes it harder for a TV station to sell advertising for another in the same market.
An update to the Freedom of Information Act squeezed through the Senate on Monday in a surprise move that sets up legislative action in the House. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) withdrew opposition to an FOIA update Monday, just hours before the measure would have died for the year. The bill would make permanent an executive order from President Obama that federal agencies adopt a “presumption of openness” toward record requests.
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have introduced a bill called the Stop Subsidizing Childhood Obesity Act, that would prohibit deductions of expenses from the advertising of foods and beverages of “poor nutritional quality” that are marketed to kids. The proceeds would go to a government program that provides fresh fruit and vegetable snacks to low-income school children.
