KOSA sponsors urge ‘quick and clean’ Senate vote with less than two weeks until recess

The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) will finally get its moment on the Senate floor this week after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced he’d move for a procedural vote on the bill as soon as Thursday. It fulfills a promise Schumer made to parent advocates who have championed the bill, which would impose a duty of care for online platforms to mitigate certain risks to kids. But the timing means that even if KOSA passes the Senate before the week is out, the House itself will only have a week to consider the measure, since the August recess is close at hand.

At a press conference Tuesday, advocates and bill sponsors urged other senators to quickly vote to pass the bill, without other amendments that could stall its progress once again. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), a lead sponsor of the bill along with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), said he hoped the floor vote would be “quick and clean” and “without amendments.”

The plea underscores the time crunch the bill faces to reach the president’s desk before the August recess. That’s an important timeline not just because it would be nice for the sponsors to have it squared away before vacation, but also because it is notoriously difficult to pass meaningful legislation after August in an election year.

There are some potential hurdles the bill could face in beating the clock. Lawmakers in the Senate could propose amendments that slow down its progress or invite new opposition. Asked at the press conference whether the sponsors are hoping that other senators don’t seek to tack their own kids online safety bills onto the measure, Blumenthal reiterated, “my hope is that we will have no amendments.” Schumer already sought to pass the bill by unanimous consent, which would have expedited the process. But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) stated he’d oppose that route, due to concerns about the bill’s potential impact on LGBTQ+ content.

If it does clear the Senate, the House’s Republican leadership would need to take it up. Republican leadership recently scuttled an Energy and Commerce Committee hearing where the House version of KOSA was set to be discussed, due to concerns with a separate privacy bill. The ranking member on that committee, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), has expressed concerns about KOSA. If it passes out of the committee, House leadership would still need to prioritize time for KOSA to get a vote on the floor in short order.

Blackburn said they’d had conversations with members in the House, and “visited with House leadership.” She added that, “we look forward to them moving it forward very soon.”

In a statement, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), said he is “looking forward to reviewing the details of the legislation that comes out of the Senate. Parents should have greater control and the necessary tools to protect their kids online. I am committed to working to find consensus in the House.”

Even with possible hurdles ahead, advocates at the press conference appeared relieved, excited, and focused on finishing the job in both the Senate and House.

“It’s no secret,” Schumer said, “it’s been a long and bumpy road. But one thing I always knew for sure is that it would be worth it.”

Ava Smithing, advocacy and operations director at the Young People’s Alliance, who’s shared her story with lawmakers about how social media algorithms steered her toward eating disorder content, said it’s “a very exhausting process having to retell really deeply personal stories again, and again, and again.” But with Schumer’s announcement, “today feels rewarding, and like those conversations and those long days aren’t going to be unanswered.”

“This floor vote is a momentous occasion after a two year-long effort,” said ParentsSOS Co-Founder Maurine Molak, whose son David died by suicide at age 16 after experiencing cyberbullying. “It seems our elected leaders have heard us, and they are ready to help. They are ready to save children’s lives.” Molak added, “while I would do anything to have my son back, seeing this bill across the finish line is my second-greatest wish.”

Tracy Ann Bancroft, whose son has suffered from an eating disorder to which she believes social media was “a major contributing factor,” said that it’s not too late to act. “We need this legislation passed urgently,” Bancroft said.

The bill was first introduced in 2022 and faced a barrage of criticism from a variety of groups including LGBTQ+ organizations, that feared the duty of care it imposed on social media companies to mitigate harms to kids could be weaponized to target positive resources for marginalized teens. But the sponsors have since quelled concerns for many with changes to the bill’s language including specifying it’s aimed at design features and that elements can’t be enforced by state attorneys general.

But the bill still has its share of critics. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Director of Federal Affairs India McKinney, for example, called KOSA in a statement, “an unconstitutional censorship bill that would give the Federal Trade Commission, and potentially state Attorneys General, the power to restrict protected online speech they find objectionable.” According to McKinney, “Platforms will respond to KOSA’s vague new liability standard by censoring users’ lawful speech on topics that KOSA deems harmful. KOSA is ambiguous enough that different administrations could censor content all along the political spectrum, from guns to vaccines to transgender issues to abortions.” Fight for the Future Director Evan Greer said on X that, “Schumer is throwing LGBTQ youth under the bus for a bill that won’t even pass the House just so he can say he’s ‘protecting the kids’ ahead of the election.”

But Smithing, who said her group withheld support of KOSA until its most recent changes, pointed the limitation section of the duty of care, which lets minors search for what they want and receive “evidence-informed information.” Specifying the bill is aimed at design features, Smithing said, “helps us feel confident that this bill is not about content,” she said.

Smithing said she’s feeling optimistic. “I’ve been really tapping into this feeling of delusional optimism over the past couple of months. Like if I keep pushing forward, something good will happen,” Smithing said. “And today feels like a day where a little bit of that optimism was realized and a little bit of that delusion was set to the side.”

If the bill becomes law, it will likely face challenges in the courts, which now must contend with a new Supreme Court opinion, which made clear that social media curation and content moderation is expressive. Blumenthal said he is confident KOSA could survive any challenges. “I think this bill is constitutionally bulletproof,” he said.