Cooper Davis Act (S.1080) Passes Out Of Senate Judiciary Committee

This past week the Cooper Davis Act (S.1080) passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee after three months of difficult negotiation. We passed along each of your letters to your two Senators, and our thanks to those that wrote newspaper letters, it all helped.

Next, this bill will go to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

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What happened in the Judiciary Committee?

For three months the bipartisan team of sponsors negotiated with the rest of the committee to get an agreement to move the bill. Opponents in the pocket of Big Tech did not budge and continued to echo misinformation, hoping the bill would just die, but it did not.

To recap, S.1080 applies to social media platforms that moderate their platforms for content. If, and only if, they moderate for content, when they discover individuals engaged in illegal sales of specific controlled substances or counterfeit controlled substances, then they are required to send their information to the DEA.

Some interesting aspects of the bill:

  • Platforms that don’t moderate for content aren’t required to do anything.
  • Platforms are not required to search for drug sellers proactively. But if they do come across them, due to user reports or other tips, they must report them.
  • The bill does not apply to cannabis. For purposes of this bill, platforms don't have to do anything about cannabis.
  • It includes provisions for platforms to strongly encourage them to respond to user reports of drug dealers.

One amendment was adopted in committee, sponsored by Judiciary chair Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), that addresses the compromises made to allow it to move out of committee. We have seen the text and don’t believe it undermines the intent of the bill. There were also amendments proposed in committee to gut the bill, presumably sponsored by big tech. They all failed, but we presume they will return for a floor amendment process.

Many thanks to the dozens of victim families that signed onto our group letter. We shared your letters with your state’s Senators. We will now be preparing for a floor fight on the legislation and will need everyone to help lobby their Senators to get it past the full Senate.

If you know of a family advocate who has not signed our letter yet, please do so. We’ll be sharing every signature with their Senators. Sign the letter at: https://www.safemedicines.org/2023/03/cooper-davis-act-2023.html