House Government Appropriations Bill Would Bar FTC & FCC From Doing Anything Related To Trump's Inane Anti-230 Executive Order

from the congress-makes-the-laws,-folks dept

It’s appropriations season (isn’t it always?), and as the House Appropriations Committee digs into the various ways in which it funds the government a friendly little birdie pointed me to a fun little tidbit buried in the House’s Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Bill for 2021:

If you can’t read that it says:

The Committee includes a new provision prohibiting the Federal Trade Commission or Federal Communications Commission from taking certain actions related to Executive Order 13925 of May 28, 2020

And just what is Executive Order 13925? Why it’s Donald Trump’s inane anti-Section 230 Executive Order that, among other things, tries to order two independent agencies — the FTC and the FCC — to take certain actions regarding a made up, nonsensical interpretation of Section 230.

Of course, as we’ve pointed out, the President doesn’t get to change the law all by himself — and that includes the interpretation of the laws. And he’s also not supposed to direct independent agencies like the FCC and the FTC to do things he wants them to do (hence the “independent” part of “independent agencies.”) Congress writes the laws. Congress gets to handle what the FCC and FTC have authority over. And, at least on the House side, they don’t think that either the FCC or the FTC should be doing anything at all regarding Section 230.

Now, it’s unlikely this little tidbit survives to the final appropriations bill, but it is a little bit of a slap pointed at the White House for its weird nonsensical (and totally misguided) obsession with reinterpreting Section 230.

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Comments on “House Government Appropriations Bill Would Bar FTC & FCC From Doing Anything Related To Trump's Inane Anti-230 Executive Order”

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22 Comments
Anonymous Coward says:

Three lines above that interesting bit is this:

Section 634. The Committee includes a new provision preventing use of funds to enter into any contract, grant, or cooperative agree-ment with any entity in which the President or Vice President, or their family members, owns, controls, or holds a significant equity interest.

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Toom1275 (profile) says:

Re: Re: Re:

Trump: Demands that the first amendment be trampled to promote the speech of his bigoted, abusive base over the free market of ideas and the rights of others.

Trump: adding another notch in his Totalitarianism belt by fascistically demanding that covid data be hidden, to make it easier for him to commit mass murder solely for perceived political gain.

Shitwits: "No, it’s totally the Dems that are totalitarian fascists, because crickets."

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re:

Now I may be wrong, but it seems to me that DACA is neither law nor the interpretation of law. It is a choice on how and whether to enforce the law. I.e. it is an administrative decision and administration is the responsibility of, let me see, ah yes, the executive branch.

Move along folks, nothing to see here…

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