Why our Congress is ill-equipped to regulate technology

The average age in the House in the 116th Congress is 57.6 years. In the Senate it’s 62.9 years.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was first elected in 1987, almost five years before the Berlin Wall fell. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was first elected the same year the portable MP3 player arrived on the market. Every member of leadership in both houses, in both parties, is over the age of 69.

Traditionally, we view age as correlated with wisdom in government. But in an era of unprecedented digital innovation, the current Congress is woefully ill- equipped to regulate an industry they have repeatedly proven unable to comprehend.

We’ve cringed through multiple high-profile hearings with major Silicon Valley CEOs, watching one of our elected leaders shove an iPhone in front of Sundar Pichai and demand to know if the Google CEO could answer operating questions about Apple’s product, while another member remained completely puzzled as to the mysterious way Facebook made its money ( hint: ads).

We’ve politely laughed as members of Congress relinquish control over their social media accounts to 20-something digital staffers, no matter how out of touch that online content stands in relation to the members’ actual persona.

And these are the leaders tasked with preventing the catastrophe of rapid, unmitigated misinformation spread across the world’s biggest social media platforms?

As one of those staffers, I can say with confidence that the 116th Congress is the last body I want in charge of thwarting misinformation, foreign hacks and malicious online culture.

Squished between two sitting members of Congress, I sat in one of the Capitol’s conference rooms at 8 a.m. two years ago when newly elected Rep. Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez held her “Twitter Class,” walking 200-plus members and staffers through agonizingly basic tips and tricks for social media engagement. These were professional digital aides sitting alongside some of Congress’ longest-serving members, all anxiously scribbling down notes like “act natural” and “just be normal,” clambering for some mystical key to online popularity. Outside of votes on the House floor, it was the best attended meeting in the 116th Congress.

Sure, not every member has to be a technology expert. But right now, the overwhelming majority of Congress can’t even conceptualize the extent of the problems online. We should not place our faith in a group of septuagenarians to cull the unending stream of bad actors online. The status quo doesn’t come close to meeting the demands of the modern internet.

The first step toward a solution is to require members of Congress, in the same way they sit for trainings on national security and legislative procedure, to attend basic technology briefings at the onset of their tenure on the Hill. Far more important than needing to know how to tweet, members first need to understand the basics of cloud computing and processor technologies to effectively conduct their constitutional oversight.

By the 118th Congress, we need to establish a separate committee to oversee all things technology. At present, our tech policies are funneled through a patchwork of congressional committees, appearing sometimes in Judiciary, other times in Armed Services, and frequently in Energy and Commerce. It’s an insane system that leaves far too many gaps for motivated lobbyists, preventing any meaningful legislation from ever reaching the House floor.

If we care about the integrity of our elections, if we care about the future of our younger generations, and if we care about fostering a civil discourse on social media channels, we must demand more of our elected officials. In order to pass informed technological regulation through the United States Congress, we need to bring every member into the 21st century.

The first step toward a solution is to require members of Congress, in the same way they sit for trainings on national security and legislative procedure, to attend basic technology briefings at the onset of their tenure on the Hill.