House in Recess
The House of Representatives is in recess this week coinciding with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) spent part of the week in Germany, where she led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Auschwitz to mark the 75th anniversary of its liberation.
Impeachment Trial Continues
Today marks the fourth day of the Senate impeachment trial. The trial, which could end as soon as next week, has essentially prevented the chamber from taking up any new legislation. Senators are barred from holding hearings during the trial, as all members must be in the chamber to listen to arguments from both the President’s legal team and Democratic House impeachment managers.
World Economic Forum
President Trump and several Cabinet members spent the balance of the week in Davos, Switzerland alongside other world and business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF). During the summit, the US and France reached a temporary truce in the standoff over France’s digital services tax (DST). In exchange for France agreeing to delay digital taxation until the end of 2020, the US dropped its planned retaliatory tariffs on French goods worth up to $2.4 billion and dropped its proposal that a future international tax be optional for companies. The debate is not over, however. Next week, digital tax talks will continue within the global framework of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris.
Comment Period Extended for Advanced Driver Assistant Systems Draft Research Test Procedures
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced this week that it will extend the comment period in the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems Draft Research Test Procedures from January 21 to March 6, 2020.
Read more in McGuireWoods Consulting’s Emerging Technologies Washington Update.