On the recordApril 19, 2023
Mr. President, I am here to talk about the Fire Grants and Safety Act. I do appreciate the words of my colleague. It was good to hear his concerns, and I think we all share concerns about Americans being spied on and their data. I also note that as we look at dealing with platforms and social media and the like at the same time we pursue this, we must pursue the bills that have been out there for well over a year now and passed through the Judiciary Committee last year and will do so again. And those are bills related to monopoly power; bills related to the incredible imbalance in power with two of the platforms, Google and Facebook, when it comes to dealing with small newspapers and radio stations and TV and their content, a bill that was nearly passed at the end of last year; another bill that Senator Grassley and I have that speaks to the fact that other countries in the world are now putting forth regulations and rules about self-preferencing and the unfairness to our small businesses; and then, of course, other bills, some of which are in the Commerce Committee, on privacy and children's issues and the like. All of these bills must be considered on this floor because, as noted by my colleague, we have not passed any rules when it comes to not only the issues he was addressing but also when it comes to a competition tech policy since the advent of the internet. I think we know a lot more than we knew when Facebook was in a garage.…





