Federal Updates Last week, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ed Markey (D-MA), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent letters to numerous education technology companies expressing concern about “vast amount of data being collected about our nation’s students” and seeking details on company data collection practices. House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Scott (D-VA), Financial Service Committee Chairwoman Waters (D-CA), and Oversight Committee Chairman Cummings (D-MD) requested records from the Education Department regarding the cancellation of information-sharing agreements…

House Cummings and Sanders Seek Information About Possible Obstruction of a Congressional Investigation on Generic Drug Prices On August 14, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, sent letters to Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Mylan N.V., and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. renewing a 2014 document request about the companies’ pricing of generic drugs. Cummings and Sanders also…

Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act Amid ongoing protests in Hong Kong, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said this week that the House will move to take up the bicameral and bipartisan Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act when it returns from recess. USTR to Hold Hearing on France’s Digital Services Tax On Monday, the Office of the USTR will hold a hearing on France’s digital services tax as part of its investigation into…

Tech Foundations for Congressional Staff Congress remains in recess through September 9. While members of Congress are away from Washington, many congressional staff attended two days of presentations this week on new developments in current and emerging technologies at Georgetown Law’s annual Tech Foundations for Congressional Staff event. Topics covered ranged from “New Developments in Privacy-Impacting Technologies” and “Realities of Implementing the GDPR and CCPA” to “Data, Inference & Algorithmic Fairness,” “The Use & Impact…

Roundtable on Violent Extremism Today, the White House will host a roundtable on violent extremism with internet and technology companies. Confirmation Votes The House and Senate are in recess until the second week in September. Before adjourning last week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) set up a number of confirmation votes for the first week the Senate is back in session, including Kelly Craft to be Ambassador to the United Nations and Dale Cabannis to…

Bipartisan Budget Act, Senate Confirmations The House and Senate are in recess until the second week of September. Last Friday, the President signed the Bipartisan Budget Act into law, implementing a two-year budget deal that also suspends the debt limit until July 31, 2021. He also signed legislation waiving a prohibition that precluded Dan Elwell, who has been serving as the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since January 2018, from staying on…