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Hello and welcome to Regulator, a newsletter for Verge subscribers about the most ambitious crossover event of all time: the infinity war between technology and politics. Not subscribed yet? Come on, do it!
Washington might seem slower than Silicon Valley. But that’s because it’s more turbulent. In order to achieve anything, one has to navigate the sheer amount of chaos that emerges when thousands of federal elected officials, staffers, political appointees, lobbyists, corporations, lawyers, journalists, and influencers are trying to push their interests, often at the same time.
For the past 20-odd issues of Regulator, I’ve written weekly about the big stories in tech’s growing influence in Washington, both as a tool used by politicians to achieve power and as an industry trying to bend the laws in its favor. But over the past year, it’s become harder to declare that there’s only one big story every week. So many new technologies are the subject of heated political debate — semiconductors, artificial intelligence, crypto, social media, surveillance, just to name a few — that to single one out every week seems like it barely scratches the surface of the action happening everywhere in town.
So this week, I’m spilling the notes and plotlines I’ve collected in the course of reporting, as well as some of the most eyebrow-raising stories I’ve come across. Shockingly, even though the District is virtually iced in, and even outside of the partial shutdown, there’s been a lot of action...
But obviously, yes, let’s talk about the shutdown first.
Protracted negotiations alert: The House has narrowly voted to avert a partial government shutdown on Tuesday afternoon, but has publicly given its demands for ICE reforms: judge-issued warrants for arrests, enforcement of agents wearing bodycams (a Verge favorite), and making ICE agents remove their masks. The Republicans are countering with a request to revoke funding for “sanctuary cities.” But of course, anything can change in an instant…
Epstein alert: After a testy back-and-forth between their lawyers and the House Oversight Committee, Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify in front of Congress about their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein at the end of the month, narrowly avoiding a vote to hold them in contempt. They also agreed to have their testimonies filmed and transcribed, so prepare your ctrl+F keys to search the DOJ’s Epstein Files database for names dropped.
Celebrity alert: Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt will appear with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the passage of Section 230 in a press conference on Capitol Hill.
The future of crypto gets some Clarity
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