Actor Sean Astin and Entertainment Industry Executives Testify on Digital Piracy; C-SPAN, June 30, 2026

 C-SPAN ; Actor Sean Astin and Entertainment Industry Executives Testify on Digital Piracy

"Actor Sean Astin and entertainment industry executives testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, AI, and the Internet on digital piracy and intellectual property enforcement. The witnesses discussed several topics, including artificial intelligence's role in intellectual property theft, efforts to protect content creators, and the use of judicial site blocking to combat online piracy."

Senate Ethics Committee dismisses complaint against Sen. Ruben Gallego; NPR, June 29, 2026

 Jason Breslow , NPR; Senate Ethics Committee dismisses complaint against Sen. Ruben Gallego

"The Senate Ethics Committee has dismissed a complaint brought against Sen. Ruben Gallego involving allegations of campaign finance violations and potential sexual misconduct. 

The allegations against the Arizona Democrat were brought to the committee in April by a fellow member of Congress, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla. But in a letter to Gallego dated June 26, the committee said it had uncovered no wrongdoing."

Congress wants artists to own their aesthetic; Politico, June 17, 2026

 AARON MAK, Politico; Congress wants artists to own their aesthetic

"Artificial intelligence has made it incredibly easy to replicate the work of artists, with users generating images reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons or Studio Ghibli characters.

Congress is now looking to protect people from having their artwork aped by AI. A bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced the CREATOR Act, which would grant visual artists control over how AI mimics their creative styles.

Existing intellectual property law generally doesn’t provide people with a right to their artistic styles. The CREATOR Act would significantly expand the scope of IP, and raises a number of unsettled questions about what exactly makes an artists’ work distinctive in a legal sense.

“There’s a lot of ambiguity about what we mean when we say ‘style,’” Cornell tech law professor James Grimmelmann told DFD. “Some elements of artistic style are things that are common in a genre … on the other hand, sometimes when we talk about artistic style, we really are referring to characteristics of somebody’s creations that are recognizably by them.”

The CREATOR Act would allow visual artists to sue those who purposefully use AI to profit from their creative styles without permission, as well as AI platforms that knowingly allow such conduct to occur."

Deepfakes are testing the limits of IP law; Politico, May 21, 2026

 AARON MAK , Politico; Deepfakes are testing the limits of IP law

"Nonconsensual deepfakes have become one of the most reviled applications of AI, and Congress is now looking to use the might of intellectual property law to keep them in check.

On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced the NO FAKES Act, which would essentially give all Americans an IP right to their voice and likeness. The act’s sponsors promote it not only as a way to protect artists and entertainers from having their creative output co-opted by AI, but as a safeguard for everyone else against pornographic deepfakes, fraudulent impersonation and a host of other ills.

NO FAKES would considerably expand the ambit of IP, which was originally aimed at incentivizing innovation and creativity. Using IP to also address issues like misinformation and sexual exploitation arguably brings this body of law into uncharted territory. Legal scholars told DFD that marshaling IP as an all-purpose shield against malicious deepfakes may have unintended consequences.

“The challenge posed by deepfakes is real, urgent and human, but not every human harm is an intellectual property harm,” said Georgetown IP law professor Madhavi Sunder. “Intellectual property can’t be everything everywhere all at once.”"

Democrat Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigns before the House can sanction her in ethics case; AP, April 21, 2026

KEVIN FREKING AND STEPHEN GROVES , AP; Democrat Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigns before the House can sanction her in ethics case

" Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida resigned Tuesday moments before a hearing was to begin to consider what punishment to recommend after a House ethics panel found she had committed numerous campaign finance and reporting violations.

The congresswoman was facing the possible threat of expulsion, something that has only occurred six times in the history of the House. Support from her own party was increasingly in doubt. 

It’s the third resignation in a little more than a week from a House lawmaker. Reps. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, and Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican, announced within hours of each other that they were leaving Congress. Both men were facing sexual misconduct allegations and possible expulsion."

Judge Orders Construction Stopped on Trump’s White House Ballroom; The New York Times, March 31, 2026

 Zach Montague , The New York Times; Judge Orders Construction Stopped on Trump’s White House Ballroom

A federal judge required the president to seek lawmakers’ input and pursue traditional approvals before proceeding with the $400 million replacement for the East Wing.

"A federal judge ordered on Tuesday that construction be halted on President Trump’s proposed White House ballroom, to be built in place of the demolished East Wing, saying work must come to a stop until the project receives a go-ahead from Congress.

The decision delivered the first meaningful setback to the president’s increasingly audacious efforts to redesign the White House and Washington, D.C. It came after months of litigation in front of Judge Richard J. Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, who had previously declined to step in.

In a 35-page opinion, Judge Leon wrote that Mr. Trump likely did not have the authority to act on his own, without consulting Congress, to replace entire sections of the White House — changes that could endure for generations."

Congress to send bill to Trump to force disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein files; The Washington Post, November 18, 2025

 

Kadia Goba

, 

Amy B Wang

 and 

Theodoric Meyer

, The Washington Post; Congress to send bill to Trump to force disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein files

"Congress was poised Tuesday to send a bill to President Donald Trump to force the Justice Department to release files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, overcoming a months-long impasse in the House and quickly dispatching with the issue in the Senate.

Hours after the bill passed the House on a 427-1 vote, the Senate agreed to deem the legislation passed as soon as it arrives from the House. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) offered a motion that received unanimous consent and will require no further action by the chamber."

Pruitt is gone. Congress still doesn’t care about ethics.; The Washington Post, July 6, 2018

Walter M. Shaub Jr., The Washington Post; Pruitt is gone. Congress still doesn’t care about ethics.

"The damage to the executive branch ethics program is profound. A bad ethical tone from the top, which began with Trump’s refusal to divest his conflicting financial interests, continues to erode that program. Trump’s commendation of the departing Pruitt is as strong a statement as a leader can send to devalue the importance of ethics in government.

The foundational principle that public service is a public trust is now on the ropes. Those in Congress who share responsibility for Pruitt’s ethical failures will find it difficult to avoid looking hypocritical if they demand ethical conduct from appointees in this administration or the next. Gowdy is a notable exception, but he is leaving Congress. It is time for his colleagues to step up their oversight of this administration’s ethical failings. The road to redemption may require an acknowledgment of responsibility for failing to oversee the EPA’s administrator and a recommitment to enforcing government ethics. As for the executive branch, Trump can start by curtailing his praise of the current holder of the title “most unethical Cabinet member in modern history.”"

Congress wants to 'inflict pain’ on Mark Zuckerberg. Is he ready for it?; Guardian, April 10, 2018

Olivia Solon, Guardian; Congress wants to 'inflict pain’ on Mark Zuckerberg. Is he ready for it?

"Taking the stand will be a major test for Zuckerberg’s communication skills. Unlike when he deals with the media, his public relations team won’t be there to cherry-pick questions from friendly parties. And Congress wants its pound of flesh.

“Congress is theatre. More than what they are going to want to learn [about the data lapses], they are going to want to inflict pain. They are going to want to be seen as being responsive to public disgruntlement with how Facebook handled the issue,” said Ari Ratner, founder of communications consultancy Inside Revolution and former Obama administration official...

Zuckerberg will want to come across as authentic and apologetic, and will, according to his testimony published on Monday, highlight the sweeping changes that the company has announced already to its privacy tools and to the way third parties can access data on the platform as well as a verification process for political advertisers and page administrators. He will probably also want to talk about Facebook’s global compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a broad set of privacy protections being introduced in the European Union in May."

What Congress Should Ask Mark Zuckerberg; The Atlantic, March 28, 2018

Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic; What Congress Should Ask Mark Zuckerberg

"Mark Zuckerberg will be headed to Washington. No one knows precisely when or to whom, but he himself has said he would be “happy” to testify.

That he has never been before Congress is one of those minor miracles that only technology companies seem capable of generating through their bulky “policy” (i.e. lobbying) teams and still considerable popularity.

But times are changing and in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica affair, Facebook processes that have been known for years are coming under the most intense scrutiny they’ve ever received. Senator Ron Wyden, for example, has already submitted a formidable list of questions to Facebook.

I’m most interested in pinning down the facts around Cambridge Analytica and political advertising generally. But Facebook is multifaceted, so I reached out to a dozen close observers of the company to see what they wanted to ask Facebook’s CEO."