{"id":10026,"date":"2026-11-05T14:18:43","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T14:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=10026"},"modified":"2026-11-05T14:18:43","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T14:18:43","slug":"democratic-control-congress-tech-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=10026","title":{"rendered":"Tech is about to get hammered in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Tech CEO hearings. Tougher AI and data center guardrails. Investigations of Elon Musk\u2019s DOGE cuts. The gates are open for Democrats once they regain control of committee gavels come January after a historic win of majorities in both the House and Senate on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cLAWYER UP,\u201d the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wrote on X<\/a> in a message aimed at the Trump administration as well as \u201ccorporate corruption<\/a>\u201d shortly after networks like NBC News projected Democratic control of the House. \u201cSubpoenas,\u201d Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) posted<\/a>. It\u2019s clear tech executives will also be caught in Democrats\u2019 crosshairs. \u201cThey are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we\u2019ll be printing,\u201d Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) posted in response to a comment that asked<\/a>, \u201cLive televised trials of Big Tech executives when?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThey are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we\u2019ll be printing\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and an Oversight member, made clear that AI companies are well within his sights. \u201cAI company CEOs should be called to testify under oath,\u201d he said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cThe revolt against data centers was one of the top issues of the 2026 election, and in a few years we will look back on it as just the early tremor of a much bigger AI earthquake upending American politics.\u201d Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the clearinghouse for tech policy issues ranging from digital privacy to kids online safety to AI, pledged to advance policies that \u201cprotect consumers and the environment, prioritize clean energy, and rein in Big Tech.\u201d Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna said taxing billionaires<\/a> should be among Democrats\u2019 top goals. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has called to \u201cPAUSE AI NOW.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Democrats have already used their position in the minority to signal what would be at the top of their committee agendas. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), for example, held a \u201cshadow\u201d hearing<\/a> earlier this year after the Trump administration\u2019s Justice Department settled its Live Nation-Ticketmaster antitrust trial, which state attorneys general who continued to litigate went on to win.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At the time, Raskin told reporters that it was important to get a head start on administration oversight. \u201cThe corruption permeates the administration so much that we have to start building the record because it\u2019s such an overwhelming task,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will be using the products of all of these shadow hearings to figure out where to go.\u201d More recently, Raskin demanded information<\/a> from Amazon, Google, Meta, and Oracle about nondisclosure agreements for public officials considering data center proposals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAI company CEOs should be called to testify under oath\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Democrats are also itching to investigate Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk over all manner of issues. Musk spent record-breaking amounts<\/a> trying to elect Republicans this cycle and held an unprecedented role in the second Trump administration as the public face of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), responsible for slashing federal jobs and eliminating the country\u2019s soft diplomacy arm, USAID. Powerful Democratic lawmakers recently told Politico<\/em><\/a> they\u2019re eyeing issues like Musk\u2019s role in DOGE, his alleged conflicts of interest, and his role in reportedly disrupting Starlink service<\/a> to Ukraine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA), a lawmaker from Silicon Valley who just won reelection, says while he\u2019s all for probing things like DOGE, he also doesn\u2019t want his party to get lost in endless calls for tech CEOs to testify without significant legislating to back it up. \u201cI think what is imperative for Democrats is to come to the table with solutions, not with slogans. Not with a lot of performative ranting, but actual solutions,\u201d Liccardo tells The Verge<\/em> in an interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With full control of Congress by a significant margin, Democrats may be able to push forward legislation that would have otherwise been difficult to pass under current Republican leadership. They will still likely run into vetoes by President Donald Trump over things like more heavy-handed AI safeguards that the president has resisted. TD Cowen\u2019s Washington Research Group wrote in a note Wednesday that it still firmly believes Trump \u201cwill veto any AI safety bill passed by Congress that would slow the AI model releases cycle.\u201d The group also anticipates that Democrats will take another stab at tech antitrust legislation, which has been more or less on hold for years, but suspects those efforts will either stop short of a floor vote or get vetoed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Liccardo thinks AI safety rules should be at the top of Democrats\u2019 tech agenda, followed closely by data centers and AI\u2019s impact on jobs. Despite Trump\u2019s aversion to many AI safeguards, he says Congress may be able to get Trump\u2019s signature if they can muster enough bipartisan support. \u201cPushing Trump out of the way requires that we show strength,\u201d Liccardo says. \u201cWe saw that in the past with, for example, the Epstein files.\u201d When some Republicans broke away from him, Liccardo says, Trump realized \u201cthat he had to get out of the way of the train because he was not going to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Trump told The New York Times<\/em><\/a> on election night he\u2019d at least aim to work with Democrats, which could indicate a potential path for measures with a broad coalition of bipartisan support. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), for example, passed overwhelmingly in the Senate in 2024<\/a>, but was blocked by Republican leadership in the House. While Trump has not endorsed the Kids Online Safety Act<\/a>, which was cosponsored by his ally Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), it\u2019s conceivable it could pass the House if given the floor time, and Trump could consider signing it should it pass both chambers. \u201cBig Tech\u2019s lawless disregard for our children and our communities will be among my top priorities this Congress,\u201d KOSA cosponsor Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said in a statement. \u201cWhether it\u2019s the industry trading kids\u2019 lives for greater profits or its wealthiest leaders trying to buy influence from a corrupt Trump Administration, Big Tech\u2019s reign of impunity must come to an end. Frankly, this issue has always been bipartisan, and I\u2019m hopeful that I\u2019ll have strong partners on both sides of the aisle as we pursue a strong oversight agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) says Democrats should pass bills like those he\u2019s introduced to make app stores responsible<\/a> for imposing age requirements and keep kids under 16 off of social media<\/a> to give parents back a sense of control. \u201cDemocrats should give voice to parents who feel powerless against social media corporations that treat their children like free labor for the dopamine economy,\u201d he says in a statement.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Data center developers are also likely to hit obstacles and have to slow their breakneck pace. \u201cFor tech investors the big focus is will these mid-term elections slow the pace of the planned 800 to 1,000 datacenters across the US fueling the AI Revolution\u2026the answer in our view is a clear YES,\u201d Yorkville Ives analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday. \u201cThere is no way to sugarcoat that Democrats taking control especially over the Senate will create some major hurdles for AI and tech legislation in the Beltway over the next 2 years. While Trump will likely veto any major draconian AI safety or regulatory laws, this will force the tech industry (Big Tech CEOs) to the negotiating table to try to come up with compromises around legislation in Congress surrounding AI related legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cDemocrats taking control especially over the Senate will create some major hurdles for AI and tech legislation\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Center-left tech policy coalition Chamber of Progress is already warning Democrats not to \u201cconfuse an anti-Trump wave with an anti-tech mandate,\u201d with CEO Adam Kovacevich saying<\/a> that Democratic governor candidates who opposed data center bans won at higher rates than supporters. Liccardo says \u201cit\u2019s not a secret that data centers poll about as well as measles, mumps, and rubella, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what suddenly drove the midterms.\u201d He hopes to leverage the data center buildout to make developers pay for needed investments in the energy grid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One company that could get a slightly warmer welcome in Congress may be Anthropic, which notably stood up to the Trump administration<\/a> when the Pentagon demanded it agree to let it use Anthropic\u2019s AI for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. The company is still likely to face many of the same questions and skepticism about its AI safety proposals as other leading AI companies, but its positioning over the past several months may help differentiate it from peers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Democrats\u2019 recent messaging has promised a Big Tech and AI crackdown. Between 2020 and 2024, the party spent<\/a> about $2 million to run six political ads that referenced keywords relating to the tech industry, according to public policy group Reset Tech; between 2025 and 2026, they ran 387, spending more than $100 million to do so. If the results from Tuesday are any indication, the rewards for following through with that message could be high.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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