Republicans push for child safety laws that Democrats wonder if the government can still enforce

Members of the Sub -Committee for Energy and Trade in the House of Representatives met on Wednesday to discuss what is usually a highly subject of the two parties: protecting children over the Internet. But in the political climate, the mood was tense and confrontation.

Republican lawmakers are eager to revive a handful of the bills of both parties, such as the Internet Safety Law, which is what The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives was banned in the finish line last year. Many Democrats in the team support these proposals, describing them as an urgent response to a social crisis. But they are asking a new question: Since the Trump administration ignores the laws of Congress and the Supreme Court’s precedents in the digestive channel of the federal government, will anyone leave to enforce these laws?

Last week, President Donald Trump Sudden – Under the current law, illegally – attempted to launch the seated Democratic Commissioners On the Federal Trade Committee, Rebecca Kelly Slier and Alvaru Bedia. The move left two Republicans in the committee, and another one is expected to be confirmed soon. Like many agencies throughout the federal government, FTC witnessed recent discounts for employeesAlthough in Numbers are much smaller than many prominent goals From the right. Even in the minority party, slaughter and Bedoya Warning that their removal operations will frustrate transparency and accountability For any decisions taken in their absence, and they are planning to prosecute their work. Without the opposition voices in the room, I warned the slaughter and biia, no one to decline and clarify the alternative paths that FTC can make, or provide an important context for the agency’s decisions. “I will be more worried about the measures taken to withdraw settlements, adjust settlements, [and] Bidoya told reporters outside the hearing hall: “If there is a lifting procedure to the committee, and the commissioners say no, this does not become public.” If there is a procedure that was submitted to the committee, and the commissioners say no, this does not become public. “

“We had what was required to protect our children,” said a member of the Sub-Trade Committee, Jean Shakovsky (D-Lil). “That is why I am very angry now for this effort to launch two muscles in FTC.” The democratic minority called for martyrdom alongside witnesses invited by the Republicans, including representatives from the National Center for missing children and exploiters (NCMEC), the National Center for Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), and the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) – as a democratic indicated, Contributed to the project 2025. Bedoya, although they were not officially invited, sat behind his colleague in the hearing room.

Republicans drew ftc launch as distraction. “This session revolves around children. It is not about what is happening here in Washington, DC.” When the correspondents, outside the hearing room, asked the shooting attempt, the head of the sub-committee, Jose Bilirakis (R-FL), said he “focuses on the session today.” Representative Erin Hochin (R-In) has apologized to the audience’s parents, “for the things that are transferred from this conversation that does not focus on protecting children, but instead on the job of someone in FTC.” Hoshin complained that one of the correspondents stopped her in the hallway to ask about the agency. She said: “A shame for the media if the only thing they are covering today is FTC, because children die.”

But the Democrats have argued that useless laws without effective enforcement, which they believe are threatened. FTC will be primarily responsible for implementing two major draft laws that were passed through the Energy and Trade Committee in the House of Representatives last year: COPPA 2.0 (COPPA 2.0) “We can talk about the importance of passing new legislation here in this session.” But she wondered how they could restore confidence in the Republicans. “If you remove the police from the rhythm, you give Senior Technology Executive CEOs in the front seat for the installationand [and] Do you prevent Koussa and Cuba, which has been put forward for years of work in this committee? “

Questions about the rule of law and who will apply it to extend beyond FTC. In the empowerment of the Elon Musk Pet Animal Project, the Ministry of Governmental efficiency (DOGE), Trump made the world’s richest man to reduce the federal workforce, and seek to close the agencies established by the Congress Law. Trump has Emphasizing the strength of what is supposed to be independent agenciesIncluding FTC, and the loyalists who were appointed to operate them so far to do so. Many experts say that we are already or we can be soon The constitutional crisisIt seems that Trump is ready to give up everything from a The law that seeks to ban Tiktok to Court orders.

Representative Frank Balloon, a member of the full committee, indicated that the Republicans are the reason that Kousa did not pass last year. “Let’s do not fail people here to suggest that these bills will become a law,” he said. “The bottom line is that we passed a zucchini and we removed CopPa from this committee in the last session and the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives refused to present these laws to the land. And you know why? They are in the pocket of large technology. And large technology does not care at all children.”

Kosa and Coppa 2.0 have been criticized, as written, they can violate speech and privacy. But this criticism can extend to almost any law of the child’s safety.

He repeated the slaughter of the feelings of the Democrats on the correspondents after the session. She said: “You cannot use the safety of children via the Internet in a useful bills that would enable FTC to impose children’s safety online, if you do not talk about whether FTC is a functional body consistent with the design of Congress,” she said.