Biden wants to protect children from “Big Tech”. Could he and Hawley find common ground?

When President Joe Biden pleaded bipartisanship with a divided Congress during his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he may have found an unlikely ally for one of his policy goals – Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.

Towards the end of his more than hour-long speech, in which he outlined his achievements over the past year and his agenda for next year, Biden said he wanted Congress to do more to curb the data-gathering capabilities of tech companies and the power that comes with them.

“It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to stop big tech from collecting personal information from children and young people online,” Biden said. “Ban advertising targeted to children and impose stricter limits on the personal information these companies collect about all of us.”

Before the speech, Hawley told NBC News that he wants to make 16 the legal age to use social media as part of a larger agenda he hopes to pursue to protect children from social media.

But Hawley’s political capital — and his actual willingness to work with Biden — is uncertain. When asked about Biden’s message of finding unity, Hawley dismissed it as a political move.

“He’s a very divisive character,” Hawley said. “He reigns very divisively.”

Hawley, who was severely reprimanded for his role in objecting to certification of the 2020 presidential election, has been a frequent critic of the Biden administration.

The Missouri Republican has actively blocked some of Biden’s candidates for senior positions and skipped last year’s speech because he refused to be tested for COVID-19 to attend. There was no exam rule for this year’s speech, which Hawley attended.

But he’s also talked about taking on big tech companies and supports Lina Khan, Biden’s chair of the Federal Trade Commission, who has written about the need to break up monopolies in the tech industry.

The path for Biden to pass substantive legislation became more difficult in November after Republicans won a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives. Lawmakers have already raised concerns that Congress will be able to pass the necessary legislation to keep the government running — like raising the debt ceiling — let alone legislation to address some of the issues it is having that Americans are facing.

Even as Biden neared bipartisanship, he called on Congress to pass key parts of the Democratic Party’s agenda.

He urged Congress to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade, noting that more than a dozen states have enacted abortion bans since last year’s Supreme Court decision. Missouri was the first state in the nation to enact such a ban. And he called on Congress to strengthen antidiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans, particularly transgender youth, as state legislatures, including Missouri and Kansas, weigh a number of community-facing bills.

The back-and-forth between the two parties could be seen throughout the night as Republicans shouted and rebuked Biden for their support during some of his more blatant appeals, before turning to applaud him minutes later.

Biden promises measures against fentanyl, demands price cap for insulin

During his speech, Biden addressed some issues both Republicans and Democrats are seeking solutions to, such as solutions to rising fentanyl overdoses.

“Let’s launch a major push to stop the production, sale and trafficking of fentanyl, with more drug detection machines to inspect cargo and stop pills and powders at the border,” Biden said, after hearing about a 20th year-old, who died of a fentanyl overdose after years of addiction to painkillers.

But even when he tried to focus on an issue that appealed to both parties, Republicans were reluctant to praise him. When he spoke about his desire to address overdose deaths, Republicans chanted “limit.” One member said, “It’s your fault.”

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control, overdose deaths nationwide fell 1% between August 2021 and August 2022, but increased in both Kansas and Missouri. That’s after overdose deaths rose sharply in both states between 2019 and 2021, with Kansas seeing a 72% increase and Missouri a 36% increase.

Fentanyl has quickly become one of the leading drugs for overdose deaths. Originally developed to help cancer patients manage pain, the drug is extremely effective — it’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Synthetic opioid overdoses, the category that includes fentanyl, accounted for 64.3% of 2020 Kansas overdose deaths. Non-heroin opioids, the category used in Missouri that includes fentanyl, accounted for 69% of the state’s 2021 overdose deaths.

“Only in our region has it been devastating,” said Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kansas. “And I think there’s just a lot of people who don’t understand what’s going on.”

Biden’s proposal focused heavily on actions his administration can take to prevent the drug from entering the country in the first place. The White House said its administration will buy 123 large scanners to screen passenger and cargo vehicles crossing borders for drugs. The administration wants to work with commercial package companies to help them stop packages containing drugs.

He has urged Congress to re-enact a bill that would provide tougher penalties for drug dealers by including “fentanyl-related substances” as Schedule I drugs, meaning they’ll be subject to strict regulation.

The Biden administration said it wants to increase funding to help states buy naloxone — also known by the brand name Narcan, which can help prevent overdoses — something Davids said is badly needed to reduce unnecessary deaths avoid.

“I think we’re in a state of crisis here, and I think we definitely need to see it not just from Congress but from the administration,” Davids said.

Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, said White House action on fentanyl was overdue.

“We’re trying to get our fingers in the levees,” Marshall said. “In Kansas, two people probably die from it every day now. We give Narcan 10, 12, 14 times a day in Kansas. But it all starts with border security. So I hope we can do something.”

Republicans like Marshall have used the rise in fentanyl overdoses to highlight problems on the southern border. Last year, Marshall traveled to Texas and spoke about how border guards are so overwhelmed by people trying to enter the country illegally that they can’t focus on preventing drugs from entering the country.

At the last convention, he introduced a bill targeting social media companies, requiring them to release data about people using their platforms to sell drugs. He named the bill after Cooper Davis, a Johnson County teenager who overdosed on a fentanyl-laced pill he believed to be Percocet.

While Biden’s speech made no reference to his legislation, Marshall said it needed to be included in a comprehensive package.

Biden began his speech by addressing the cost of life-saving prescription drugs like insulin for people with diabetes. He called on Congress to cap the price of insulin at $35, a policy on which Hawley supports him. The Missouri Senator was the only Republican who stood to applaud the portion of the speech.

The proposal has broad support among Democrats, but Republicans are more divided. Hawley broke with his party leadership, voting with Democrats last year to keep a provision in a spending bill that would have capped the price at $35.

“I think it’s awfully hard to fight back,” Hawley said before the speech. “Just try to explain it to people who are medically dependent on this drug that hasn’t gotten more expensive to produce.”

The provision eventually failed, and Congress could only cap rates for people on Medicare and Medicaid. Hawley said if a proposal to cap the price of insulin for privately insured people went to a vote, it would be adopted.

Guests emphasize push for police reform

A month after Memphis police killed 29-year-old Tire Nichols at a traffic stop, Biden urged Congress to pass legislation to increase officer accountability. Body camera footage showed several officers viciously beating Nichols.

Nichols’ parents were guests of First Lady Jill Biden and sat one row in front of her. When Biden mentioned them in his speech, members of both parties gave them a standing ovation.

“Imagine what it’s like to lose a child to the law,” Biden said. “Imagine having to worry about whether your son or daughter will come home after walking down the street, playing in the park, or just driving their car.”

Michael Brown Sr. was among the people in the crowd. Brown is the father of Michael Brown, who was killed by police in 2014 and sparked protests in Ferguson that drew national attention.

Rep. Cori Bush, D-Missouri, invited Brown, who founded a nonprofit organization aimed at helping the fathers of people killed by police.

Bush, who organized the Ferguson protests, was among the members of the Congressional Black Caucus who invited the families of victims of police brutality. The invitations are part of a larger push in Congress to advance police reform.

“Something good has to come out of this,” Biden said, citing Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells.

In a pre-speech call with reporters, Bush acknowledged that police reform would be difficult to achieve if Republicans controlled the House of Representatives.

“We can spend the next two years really trying to mobilize to take back the House of Representatives,” Bush said.

Davids invited Jessica Kidd, 30, of Overland Park to highlight efforts to increase the number of female truck drivers and draw attention to Johnson County Community College’s professional driver’s license program.

Kidd, who was visiting the Capitol for the first time, said she hopes her success in the program will help other women overcome any stigma surrounding truck driving.

“It’s the stigma of women, they’re breadwinners, they stay at home, they take care of the family, they take care of the kids and that they’re gone for weeks or months,” Kidd said. “I think that stigma alone hurts women who get into trucking.”

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