Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Congress is back from recess, and lawmakers are getting ready to move bipartisan tech legislation and dive into bigger picture discussions on the impacts of tariffs on tech and AI policy.
Why it matters: Congress is tied up in the debate over how President Trump's tariffs impact the tech industry, with interest groups and lobbyists pressing members for help and clarification as they grapple with the ramifications for business and manufacturing.
Here are the top things we're keeping an eye on as Congress rolls back into town.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act: The House is set to vote on the Senate-passed deepfakes and AI bill on Monday, sending it to President Trump's desk for his signature.
- The bill would require platforms to quickly remove non-consensual intimate images and criminalizes posting such content.
- If passed, it would mark a quick and unusually easy path for an AI bill to make it through Congress, buoyed by First Lady Melania Trump's support.
Spectrum in reconciliation: Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Brett Guthrie want to free up more spectrum for commercial use, pushing to restore the FCC's spectrum auction authority and for a spectrum pipeline to be included in the upcoming reconciliation bill.
- Defense hawks, including Sen. Mike Rounds, feel differently, and the Pentagon has historically been against giving up any of their spectrum.
FCC and FTC oversight: We expect Hill Democrats to keep pushing back against the firings of Democratic FTC commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter.
- As the FTC continues its antitrust case against Meta in federal court, and Congress debates bills that would give the FTC enforcement powers, the absence of Democratic commissioners won't go unnoticed.
- We also expect Democrats to continue pushing back on FCC chair Brendan Carr's moves against news programs to root out "woke" material, as well as his attempts to weaken Section 230.
TikTok teeters along: We'll be watching to see if lawmakers continue to push the Trump administration to make a TikTok deal that satisfies the letter of the law.
- Trump extended the ban deadline again until June 19.
Antitrust watch: Rep. Jim Jordan is pushing back against the EU's aggressive tech regulatory regime, which the Trump administration called unfair and discriminatory after the European Commission hit Apple and Meta with fines last week.
- That's happening as the FTC's Meta case and the DOJ's Google case play out.
- We'll be interested to see how members of Congress square their support for the Trump administration's tech antitrust litigation with their distaste for foreign fines against U.S. tech companies.
What's next on AI policy: We're tracking how Congress reacts as the Trump administration continues to rip up and try to replace all of former President Biden's plans for AI development.
- We're watching for further developments around the administration's AI "action plan" and how members respond.
- On Wednesday, there's the Hill and Valley Forum on Capitol Hill, where we expect to hear which direction the defense-hawk tech contingent in Washington wants to push AI policy to go.
