With help from John Hendel, Cristiano Lima, Leah Nylen and Katy Murphy
Editor’s Note: This edition of Morning Tech is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Technology subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. Learn more about POLITICO Pro’s comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, at politicopro.com.
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— If Sanders wins in New Hampshire: If the polls hold true, the tech world may see a ton more heat from the Vermont senator, who has long been critical of tech giants’ market power and labor practices.
— Trump’s 2021 funding requests: President Donald Trump’s 2021 budget proposal would give big funding boosts to artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as the Commerce Department’s NTIA and the Justice Department’s antitrust division, but not to the FTC or FCC.
— Bipartisanship at risk?: House Judiciary’s Republican leaders say recent comments from the Democratic chairman about Silicon Valley giants threatens the panel’s tech antitrust probe, a rare point of bipartisanship in a hotly divided Congress.
IT’S TUESDAY, AND ALL EYES ARE ON THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY OF 2020: NEW HAMPSHIRE. WELCOME TO MORNING TECH! I’m your host, Alexandra Levine.
Got a news tip? Write Alex at alevine@politico.com or @Ali_Lev. An event for our calendar? Send details to techcalendar@politicopro.com. Anything else? Full team info below. And don’t forget: add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.
Tech of the Town
WHAT NEW HAMPSHIRE MEANS FOR TECH — A week after winning the most votes in Iowa, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is polling first in New Hampshire, with Pete Buttigieg a close-second. (Further behind, and mostly neck-and-neck, are Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar.) What could this mean for the tech world? Just about anything.
— But if the Vermont senator prevails in tonight’s Democratic presidential primary, we can expect to hear more of his usual anti-Amazon commentary (Sanders has repeatedly criticized Amazon’s labor practices and complained that the online giant pays “zero” in taxes); more “break up big tech” talk (Sanders has said he would “absolutely” look to break up tech companies like Amazon, Google and Facebook); and more attacks on corporate power and influence (he has proposed taxing tech giants based on how big a gap exists between the salaries of their CEOs and their mid-level employees).
— Several prime tech policy issues are also fair game: Sanders’ criminal justice reform plan includes a ban on law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology, and he has spoken out about tech's legal liability shield, Section 230 — debates that are playing out (often, with fireworks) at the federal level. (Further reading in POLITICO Magazine: “Is it Bernie’s Party Now?”)
— Plus: Could New Hampshire be the next Iowa? State and local election officials running this primary without apps (voters will cast their ballots on paper, which in some cases will be counted by hand) say no. POLITICO’s Eric Geller provides the bird’s-eye view.
— Here’s everything you need to know about the 2020 race in New Hampshire.
BUDGET DISPATCH: HUGE JUMP FOR DOJ ANTITRUST, NO BIG CHANGES FOR FCC AND FTC — The White House on Monday rolled out its fiscal year 2021 funding requests, including a proposed 71 percent bump in congressional spending on the Justice Department’s antitrust division — an increase that, as Leah reports, “is another indicator that the agency is serious about its pending investigations into tech giants like Google and Facebook.” (It would also allow the agency to hire 87 additional staffers.)
— In contrast, the FCC and FTC aren’t requesting any big changes in their funding or staffing. The FCC is seeking $343 million, up 1.2 percent from its 2020 funding level, while the FTC is asking for a little over $330 million, which is about $800,000 less than its current funding. The FCC noted it’s on track to move to its new Washington headquarters in June, while FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, objected to the request for her agency, saying in a statement that it “does not accurately reflect the funding the FTC needs to protect consumers and promote competition.”
— Artificial intelligence and quantum computing would also receive big funding boosts under the budget proposal, Nancy reports. So would the Commerce Department’s NTIA, to help prepare the agency for 5G and other technological changes, as John reported for Pros.
IS THE BIPARTISAN TECH ANTITRUST PROBE IN JEOPARDY? — The House Judiciary Committee’s investigation into competition in the tech sector — which garnered rare bipartisan momentum in a hotly divided Congress — could now be in trouble. On Monday night, the committee’s Republican leaders criticized Democratic Chairman Jerry Nadler’s recent remarks railing against the power of Silicon Valley giants, writing in a letter that Nadler’s comments "have jeopardized" the panel's "ability to perform bipartisan work." Spokespeople for Nadler did not offer comment. A Cicilline spokesperson declined comment.
— “The dust-up marks the first major sign of fracturing between House Judiciary Republicans and Democrats over their bipartisan investigation into possible anti-competitive conduct in the tech industry — a probe widely seen as one of Silicon Valley’s biggest threats on Capitol Hill,” Cristiano reports in a new dispatch. “The dispute could threaten the push to advance bipartisan antitrust legislation in the House, something House Judiciary antitrust Chairman David Cicilline (D-R.I.) has said the committee plans to do early this year.”
T-MOBILE-SPRINT WIN — T-Mobile and Sprint can merge, a federal judge is expected to rule today, rejecting a challenge by California, New York and other state attorneys general, Leah reports. U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero is expected to release his hotly anticipated decision on the $26.2 billion telecom megadeal later this morning.
FCC’S FUTURE-OF-WORK FOCUS — Amazon, AT&T, Walmart, LinkedIn and Postmates are among the tech companies expected at a future-of-work event today that Democratic FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks is hosting at the agency’s headquarters.
— The public roundtable will address the same kinds of issues that several Democratic presidential candidates have raised, such as concerns about AI’s effect on labor economies. “Issues of #5G, #InternetInequality, automation & education are colliding in ways that will impact all Americans,” Starks wrote on Twitter. “Eager to host this important policy discussion!”
CCPA UPDATE: GET ME REWRITE! — California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday published a business-friendly tweak to his proposed Privacy Act regulations, a change that his office said had been inadvertently omitted from a revised draft unveiled on Friday.
— Only businesses that collect, sell or share the information of at least 10 million Californians per year — that’s about 1 in 4 residents — would have to report annual statistics about CCPA requests and how quickly they responded to privacy-minded consumers, under the change. That threshold was originally 4 million.
— The update will come as a relief to companies that no longer need to pull back the curtain on their Privacy Act responsiveness. It’s also good news for procrastinators, as the new deadline for submitting comments on the AG’s rules was pushed back a day to Feb. 25.
TECH QUOTE DU JOUR — Senate Judiciary antitrust Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) offered colorful praise on Monday for Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) proposal to have the Justice Department absorb the FTC, a plan aimed in part at addressing concerns over the FTC’s enforcement of antitrust standards in the technology sector.
— “Having two federal agencies in charge of enforcing antitrust law makes as much sense as having two popes,” Lee told MT in an emailed statement. “This is an issue we’ve had hearings on in the Judiciary Committee and I think Sen. Hawley has identified a productive and constitutionally sound way forward.” (Hawley’s proposal swiftly drew pushback from one industry group, NetChoice, which said it “would make political abuse more likely.")
— The state of play: Some Republicans in the GOP-led Senate now want to reduce the number of regulators overseeing competition in the digital marketplace. A small contingent of House Democrats wants to create a new federal enforcer to police online privacy. But a vast majority of the discussions happening on Capitol Hill around those issues have so far focused on ways to empower the FTC, not downgrade it.
Transitions
Mike Hopkins, chairman of Sony Pictures Television, is joining Amazon as a senior vice president overseeing Amazon’s Prime video platform and movie and television studios.
Silicon Valley Must Reads
AB 5 blow: Uber and Postmates on Monday lost the first round in their challenge to California’s new worker classification law, POLITICO reports.
Uber IPO fallout: “As tax season begins, some of Uber's earliest employees are realizing they had little idea how their stock grants worked — and are now grappling with the fallout on their tax bills after last May's disappointing IPO,” Protocol reports.
JEDI latest: Amazon wants Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper to testify in its lawsuit against the Pentagon over the award of the multibillion-dollar JEDI cloud computing contract to Microsoft, POLITICO reports.
ICYMI: “Federal prosecutors announced charges Monday against four Chinese intelligence officers for hacking the credit-reporting giant Equifax in one of the largest data breaches in history,” POLITICO reports.
Quick Downloads
Facebook ad tracker: New Hampshire saw more than $1 million in Facebook spending in the month leading up to today’s presidential primary, Zach Montellaro reports for Pros.
Can privacy be a piece of cake?: A privacy app called Jumbo “presents a startling contrast to the maze of privacy controls presented by companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google,” Protocol reports — here’s how it works, and how it plans turn a buck.
Virus watch: Following Amazon’s lead, Sony and NTT are pulling out of this month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as a precaution during the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reports.
In profile: Zapata Computing, a startup that creates software for quantum computers by avoiding — as much as possible — actually using a quantum machine, Protocol reports.
Out today: Alexis Wichowski, New York City’s deputy chief technology director and a professor at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, is out today with “The Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights, and Transforms Our World,” a book published by HarperCollins.
Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Bob King (bking@politico.com, @bkingdc), Mike Farrell (mfarrell@politico.com, @mikebfarrell), Nancy Scola (nscola@politico.com, @nancyscola), Steven Overly (soverly@politico.com, @stevenoverly), John Hendel (jhendel@politico.com, @JohnHendel), Cristiano Lima (clima@politico.com, @viaCristiano), Alexandra S. Levine (alevine@politico.com, @Ali_Lev), and Leah Nylen (lnylen@politico.com, @leah_nylen).
TTYL.
2020-02-11 15:00:00Z
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-tech/2020/02/11/for-the-tech-world-new-hampshire-is-anyones-race-785272
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