Morning Wire XX
[0] With a Republican -led House and a Democrat -led Senate, most have expected gridlock to define Washington.
[1] But some meaningful bipartisan legislation is making its way through.
[2] In this episode, we sit down with Tennessee Senator Marcia Blackburn to discuss some key bills that are poised to pass the upper chamber.
[3] I'm Daily Wire, editor -in -chief John Bickley, with Georgia Howell.
[4] It's Saturday, June 3rd, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire.
[5] Joining us to discuss some of the legislation being considered in the Senate is Tennessee, Senator Marcia Blackburn.
[6] Senator, welcome.
[7] Now, you and some of your colleagues recently introduced the American Defense Technologies Act.
[8] First, what's the purpose of this bill?
[9] This is intended to spur innovation and to make certain that as we look at great power competition, that we encourage DOD to use some of these innovations that are taking place in the private sector.
[10] Our role is to create the environment for jobs growth to take place.
[11] We do that part to get rid of regulation, to open doors of opportunity, and then to also make certain that our government agencies are utilizing these next generation best technologies, better ideas that are coming out of a private sector.
[12] That's how you build efficiency in government.
[13] Now, China is on a lot of people's minds when we discuss both the military and innovation.
[14] Does this bill address competition with our adversaries, particularly China?
[15] It does indeed address this because what it does is turn that emphasis.
[16] How do we make certain that we are out innovating China?
[17] How do we make certain that we are looking at all available tools when it comes to great power competition?
[18] Everyone is concerned about what China is doing, whether it is their Belt and Road initiative, their debt diplomacy, great power competition on the military end, and the interesting thing about China, and I would add to this the other members of what I call the New Axis of Evil, which is Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
[19] What you have is people that want to defeat the U .S. is the world's lone superpower.
[20] What we have to do is say, let's be smart about this.
[21] We've got the greatest minds, the greatest innovators on the face of the earth.
[22] So let's make certain the tools that they are developing that we consider these utilizations in our military complex, as well as society benefiting from these.
[23] Now, another bill you were a part of was just reintroduced the Empowering Law Enforcement Act.
[24] What would that bill do if best?
[25] What this would do is allow local law enforcement to access grants to beef up their forces.
[26] Every time I talk with our sheriffs and police departments across the state of Tennessee, What they will tell me is, look, we don't have enough people on the force.
[27] And right now, because of defund the police and other actions that have taken place from the left, that have basically shown disrespect for law enforcement, that have demeaned members of the law enforcement community.
[28] And there are so many people that say, well, I don't want to go into law enforcement.
[29] I might go into private security, but I'm not going into law enforcement.
[30] So by making these grants available and encouraging the hiring of police, people that are there in your local community, what it will do is help us to have more people on the beat, more security officers at schools.
[31] It will help us as we look for fighting crime in these communities, interdicting drugs that are making their way to the communities, dealing with the human trafficking and sex trafficking that's taking place in our communities and neighborhoods.
[32] Speaking of human trafficking and drugs, obviously border states experienced this at a heightened level.
[33] Does this bill allocate more resources to border states?
[34] No, because every town's a border town in every state is a border state.
[35] That is what we have learned from these open border policies of the Biden administration.
[36] We've got record numbers of people coming to our border.
[37] Indeed, people from 176 different countries came to our border last year.
[38] This year, we're looking at a greater number than that.
[39] We've already had 6 .3 million people cross that border.
[40] So these funds are available for law enforcement entities all across the country.
[41] Another bill you've proposed that also addresses some drug and human trafficking issues is the Kids Online Safety Act.
[42] How specifically does it protect children on social media?
[43] This would be the legislation that is your first attempt at reigning in big tech because it puts the responsibility on these big tech platforms to design for safety by default.
[44] It makes the settings available to parents and teens so that they can do.
[45] disable these algorithms.
[46] It requires opening those algorithms up, not only to parents and teens, but also to third -party researchers so that they can audit what is happening with these algorithms.
[47] So developing that toolbox is essential for parents.
[48] And this would also give parents a designated portal where they can report this bad content that we are targeting, things that promote suicide, cyberbullying, eating disorders, self -harm, some of these postings that lead to kids meeting drug dealers.
[49] And we've recently met with the DEA, one of the biggest problems they have right now is the way fentanyl and xylazine is being sold.
[50] online.
[51] The drug dealers are using these online platforms.
[52] So it gives parents the ability to report these pedophiles and sex traffickers and drug dealers.
[53] And then social media would have a shot clock where they have to go take these postings down.
[54] We've had people that have lost their children to these TikTok challenges, the choking challenge.
[55] We've talked to a few parents whose children died doing that choking challenge.
[56] Another one, the croning challenge.
[57] And these things are promoted on these platforms.
[58] They have no business being there.
[59] You know, our children are exposed to things in the virtual space that there are laws against exposure to these things in the physical space.
[60] So these protections need to be put online.
[61] The burden for this needs to be on social media.
[62] And what is the status of this legislation.
[63] The Kids Online Safety Act, we think, is going to move forward quickly.
[64] It will be coming out of commerce committee.
[65] We think that our Innovation Act is going to move out of commerce and probably will also see some discussion during the NDAA, and that should be done this summer.
[66] Final question, stepping back some here.
[67] Do you feel that the current divided Senate is able to accomplish meaningful work together to compromise and get some important legislation passed?
[68] When it comes to protecting children online, there has been wide bipartisan support.
[69] We have the CSAM bill, we have the Earnit Act, the Report Act, the Kids Online Safety Act.
[70] There has been a bipartisan agreement that something has to be done to reign in big tech and to protect children online.
[71] When it comes to supporting the military, There are more of our members across the aisle that realize China is a true threat.
[72] They are not a competitor.
[73] They are an adversary.
[74] I know that the White House wants us to look at them as a competitor.
[75] They are not.
[76] They are an adversary.
[77] They want to take us down and be globally dominant by the time we get to 2050.
[78] Certainly important to know who our adversaries are.
[79] Senator, thank you so much for joining us.
[80] Good to join you.
[81] Thank you.
[82] That was Senator Marsha Blackburn, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.