The 2024 Pro Tech Policy awards

1. Oddest couple: Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn

• They come from opposite ends of the political spectrum — but Blumenthal and Blackburn are fighting together, even now at the 11th hour, to pass the Kids Online Safety Act.

2. Most notable new face on the scene: Elon Musk

• Even before he tanked the CR, the tech billionaire weighed in on all sorts of tech policy issues this year, from KOSA to California's AI bill.
• And his Department of Government Efficiency advisory commission is sure to hit on tech agencies and how AI is deployed in the federal government.

3. Most memorable markup: House Energy and Commerce's canceled APRA markup

• The American Privacy Rights Act had faced an onslaught of attacks from House leadership and industry. But E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers insisted the day before it was scheduled that the June markup for the bipartisan privacy bill would still take place.
• The next day, just two minutes before the markup was set to begin, a staffer informed people gathered inside the E&C hearing room that it had been canceled.

4. Biggest surprise: The TikTok sale-or-ban bill zooms through Congress

• Then-China Select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi introduced the legislation on March 5, and it passed the House on March 13.
• Things were fairly speedy in the Senate, too: The bill took just a little over a month to reach President Biden's desk as part of the foreign aid and national security package he signed on April 24.

5. Biggest legislative fizzle: AI policy

• As we wrote last week, Congress had high hopes of passing AI policy this year and finally getting in the game of helping to set global standards around the technology.
• That didn't pan out, but plenty of lawmakers have told us they plan to reintroduce their AI bills next year.

6. Best quote: House Speaker Mike Johnson on AI, to Axios' Maria Curi and Ashley Gold in a September interview

• "But it's new and people are stumbling through it so, you know, I try to give a lot of mercy."

7. Longest lasting legacies: Several heavy hitters are retiring, leaving behind a record of shaping the tech agenda for years.

• CMR tried to give all Americans privacy protections and sunset tech's liability shield.
• Ken Buck left Congress earlier this year, after reaching across the aisle on a blockbuster antitrust report that set the stage for a flurry of legislative pushes to hold Big Tech accountable.
• Sen. Sherrod Brown helped bring millions of CHIPS and Science Act funding to his home state of Ohio.
• And Rep. Anna Eshoo, who championed the CREATE AI Act, fought for California's privacy standards, and told Axios: "I have no plans after retirement, which I think is delicious."