News: Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is ratcheting up the pressure on the House to take up the Kids Online Safety Act, her Senate-passed bill that would force social media platforms to design their products with the safety of younger users in mind.
We scooped last month that House GOP leadership wouldn’t be taking up the bipartisan package. But Blackburn, a hardline conservative, is trying to make it hard to skip. The Senate bill passed with 91 votes in July.
First up is a video interview with the mother of a 17-year-old in which Blackburn says the boy’s death — after taking what his mother describes as a “counterfeit Xanax” — shows Congress should pass KOSA. When asked how the teenager obtained the pill, his mother responds: “Some of that might have happened via Snapchat.”
Blackburn, who authored KOSA with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), notes the bill’s bipartisan status in the video.
Dozens of parents and kids will be holding meetings in the House this week to push the bill, according to Blackburn’s office. Officials from the University of Colorado’s medical school who specialize in preventing child abuse and trauma will also be meeting with House offices.
Some House Republicans worry the bill would infringe on speech and boost surveillance. And Democrats and civil liberties advocates are concerned it would empower Republicans to go after content supporting LGBTQ youth.
Dems’ new IVF push: The Senate will vote Tuesday on the Right to IVF Act, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced in a “Dear Colleague” letter Sunday. Senate Democrats are looking to revive the issue in the home stretch of the 2024 campaign.
It’s the same bill that Schumer teed up for a messaging vote over the summer. Republicans blocked it at the time, arguing it was a political ploy intended to boost vulnerable Democrats. We expect the same result this time too.
Schumer decided to bring it up again in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s recent comments on IVF, most notably his newfound support for requiring insurance companies to cover IVF. Of course, Trump’s position cuts against everything Republicans argued as they tried to repeal Obamacare.
In his letter, Schumer noted that this is a “key provision” in the Right to IVF Act, adding: “So, we are going to give our Republican colleagues another chance to show the American people where they stand.”
While the bill isn’t going anywhere, it’s worth noting that Republicans debated internally whether to advance it back in June, with some arguing that the GOP should go on offense over the issue. The idea would be to vote to move forward on the bill in order to force votes on amendments. This isn’t likely to be a successful strategy anyway.
“These are show votes, we know that,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune said last week. “[But] we’ll have a response when the time comes.”
On Trump’s idea of mandating insurance coverage for IVF, Thune said he worried it could raise insurance costs across the board.
— Ben Brody and Andrew Desiderio
