Silicon Valley's Rep Ro Khanna offers a midterm warning

Although Rep Ro Khanna (D-CA)'s district includes a wide swath of the tech industry's homes in towns like Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, and Fremont, he is an advocate for laws that would curb Big Tech's power. Among the restrictions Rep Khanna favors would expand privacy protections beyond California's existing law as well as a change in antitrust law that would shift the burden of proof in large deals, requiring the acquiring company to prove a deal won't hurt competition. Members of Congress have proposed new bills around privacy and antitrust and children's online safety, but so far none have passed the full chamber. However, some federal legislation on tech issues could yet pass in the post-election lame-duck session, but the larger question is which party emerges with control of Congress after the midterms. Overall, Khanna said he would support the creation of a new federal agency to govern tech regulation that could augment the work currently split among the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Department of Justice. Though getting such an agency approved and funded would be an uphill climb given the difficulty Democrats have had passing any new tech legislation — and the funding limits the existing regulatory agencies already face.