i2Coalition Internet Infrastructure Policy Brief: February 2025

Your brief update on important Internet policy issues

OUTLOOK 

Federal budget negotiations dominated the work of the 119th Congress in February. The House and Senate Republican leaders pursued separate strategies for developing a budget resolution required as a first step to enable Republicans to draft and pass federal legislation using the reconciliation process to achieve the President’s desired budgetary outcomes. The reconciliation procedures allow the Republican-controlled Senate to pass that legislation on a simple majority vote. On February 25, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) led the House’s narrow passage (217-215 vote) of a budget resolution providing the framework for a single, large bill that addresses taxes, border security, national defense, and energy priorities. In contrast, led by Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), the Senate pursued a competing two-part plan, first passing a budget resolution on February 21 addressing border security and the military, but deferring the Senate’s work on taxes to a future phase two. House and Senate Republicans must now reconcile differences between their budget blueprints. Some of the major issues in the Republicans’ budget discussions include extending the 2017 tax cuts, addressing state and local tax deduction caps, health care funding cuts, reducing the deficit, and finding strategies to manage the debt ceiling increase. Overhanging the complex budget negotiations is a fast-approaching March 14 deadline for funding federal agencies to avoid a government shutdown, and ongoing bicameral talks on FY 2025 appropriations. Amidst this legislative activity, longtime and now former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced he would not seek re-election. 

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency Service (known as DOGE), established in the Executive Office of the President and guided by the President’s senior advisor and tech billionaire Elon Musk, has rocked federal government agencies and many thousands of their employees with fast-paced, major operations and policy changes, including massive job eliminations across the federal government. The DOGE initiatives attempt to eliminate waste and fraud to realize large federal budget cost savings, among other things. Through the issuance of Executive Orders and a continuous stream of public statements, President Trump is also aiming to transform global trade norms as well as decades of U.S. foreign policy, especially regarding Europe and Russia. Notably, the President dispatched U.S. senior officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to begin discussions with Russian counterparts for ending the Russia-Ukraine War, without inviting Ukraine and European officials to the initial meeting in Saudi Arabia. Some of the Trump Executive Orders and DOGE actions have spawned lawsuits from stakeholders challenging the scope of the President’s legal authority and have drawn significant citizen outcry at local town hall meetings with their Republican and Democratic Congressional representatives. To report on his Administration’s actions to date and on future plans in his second term, President Trump will address a joint session of Congress on March 4. 

TECH POLICY PRIORITIES 

Section 230/Intermediary Liability/Content Moderation. Section 230 reform debate is expected to restart in the 119th Congress. Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced he would introduce a bipartisan bill to repeal Section 230 within two years. In a hearing addressing censorship and social media platforms, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called for a thoughtful review of the status of Section 230 to consider whether it is still needed. The Federal Trade Commission has invited public comments on social media content moderation practices, including from individuals who believe that they were censored. The Senate unanimously passed the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which would criminalize publication of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) or the threat to publish NCII in interstate commerce and require its prompt removal by covered platforms. 

Federal Privacy. House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Guthrie (R-KY) and Committee Vice Chair John Joyce (D-PA) announced the formation of a Republican Working Group on Privacy and Data Security. The group will hear from stakeholders and work on a framework for comprehensive federal privacy and data security legislation. Supporters of the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, which passed the Senate in the last Congress but did not receive a House floor vote, seek to re-introduce the legislation and to gain bicameral support and passage in this Congress. The Senate Commerce Committee passed the Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA), which would set a minimum age of 13 for use of social media platforms and prohibit platforms from feeding algorithmically targeted content to users under the age of 17.

Copyright/IP. As Congress re-starts legislative debate about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on intellectual property, federal courts continue to issue decisions addressing novel questions of whether use of AI training tools results in copyright infringement or can be considered a “fair use.” The Trump administration is developing an AI Action plan and released a request for information to gather input from stakeholders by March 15. The scope of invited comments is broad and includes the topic of AI’s impact on intellectual property. Respondents are encouraged to submit concrete AI policy actions needed to address the topics raised. 

Antitrust/Competition. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the 2023 Merger Guidelines adopted under the Biden administration will remain in effect under the current administration. FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson announced that the agency is severing ties with the American Bar Association (ABA), calling it a radical left-wing political organization influenced by Big Tech. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a February 12 confirmation hearing for Abigail Slater who was nominated by President Trump to lead the antitrust division in the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Broadband. At his Senate hearing, the recently confirmed Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick expressed support for continuing the $42.5 billion BEAD broadband expansion program, but with changes that would make program dollars more readily available for satellite and wireless technologies. Lutnick also stated his support for reallocating Defense Department wireless spectrum for commercial use, despite national security concerns expressed by some senators and the Department of Defense. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on March 26 regarding the challenge to a 5th Circuit federal court of appeals ruling that deemed illegal the Universal Service Fund contribution factor. 

Find Out More…

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