With help from John Hendel and Leah Nylen

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— Remain calm, all is well: The Biden administration has finally reassured those worried by its objections to Europe’s antitrust efforts on tech — but congressional Democrats are still split.

— Blue on blue: Progressive fury is escalating around Senate Commerce chair Maria Cantwell’s plans for another hearing on FCC nominee Gigi Sohn — and now, even the majority leader’s involved.

— Still no CTO: House Democrats are pushing Biden to pick up the pace on nominating a U.S. chief technology officer. 

IT’S FRIDAY, FEB. 4. Welcome to Morning Tech! The Winter Olympics opening ceremony is happening today in Beijing — how’s everyone feeling about this year’s games? They’re usually a big hit in our house, but between the lack of spectators, Covid restrictions on athletes and Beijing’s less-than-stellar human rights record, I’m a little ‘bleh’ about it. Still, the ski jumps should be cool — drop me a line about your thoughts on this year’s Olympics, and which event you’re most excited to watch!

Tips are welcome every week, but especially this one. Please send to @BrendanBordelon, or by email to [email protected]. Got an event for our calendar? Send details to [email protected]. Anything else? Team info below. And don’t forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

WHITE HOUSE GETS OFF THE FENCE — The Biden team came out in favor of the antitrust measures moving through both houses of Congress late Thursday — but how much public support and political capital the White House aims to spend on reining in giant tech companies remains an open question.

The move, coming hours after the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a bill to break Apple and Google’s hold on app stores, marks the first time the White House has officially weighed in on the congressional antitrust push, Leah and POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn reported. While the White House held a “listening session” with supporters of tech antitrust reform two weeks ago, it offered a neutral readout afterward, saying only that officials “look forward to working with Congress to make bipartisan progress on the issue.”

But that polite restraint ended this week following the administration’s foray into the European Union’s draft Digital Markets Act — a package of rules designed to rein in the power of tech giants. As Leah and POLITICO EU’s Samuel Stolton and Mark Scott reported, D.C. antitrust advocates weren’t pleased with the policy paper, thinking it could undermine pending congressional legislation targeting the digital giants. The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue — a group of 75 U.S. and EU consumer groups — called out the Biden administration Thursday for expressing “concern” about the administration’s statements on the DMA.

“The DMA does not target U.S. companies but rather targets companies that are in a position to define how goods, services, and information reach customers and which too often turn this position to their advantage to the detriment of competition and consumers’ interests,” the groups said, urging Biden to “work constructively with the EU” on finalizing the legislation.

Biden was always going to have to make a decision on whether to publicly back the antitrust bills — particularly with congressional Democrats split.

About those intraparty tensions … The moderate House New Democrats met Thursday afternoon with antitrust chair David Cicilline (D-R.I.) to talk about the tech antitrust bills. (Leah and Emily with the report.) Aides said the meeting was polite, but at least one member — Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) — expressed serious concerns. The 97-member coalition will meet next week with two other vocal opponents, California Democrats Zoe Lofgren and Lou Correa.

SECOND SOHN HEARING IGNITES CANTWELL BACKLASH — Cantwell (D-Wash.) is facing increasing criticism from progressive groups for her decision to hold a rare follow-up confirmation hearing for Sohn — with one group even calling on Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to strip the senator of her Commerce committee gavel.

— Cranking up the dial: These attacks have already attracted Senate leadership attention and could inflame partisan tensions going into next week’s hearing (not to mention backfire, given these groups ultimately need the Democratic committee chair to advance their policy priorities). A call took place Thursday between members of Schumer’s staff and a handful of representatives from the progressive groups attacking Cantwell. A source familiar with the call, who was not authorized to speak publicly, told MT it was a “friendly and productive conversation.”

— That escalated quickly: The attacks on Cantwell began Wednesday, just hours after she scheduled a second hearing for Sohn for Feb. 9, with progressive tech groups Public Knowledge (a group Sohn once led) and Free Press criticizing the senator’s decision.

On Thursday, two more groups joined the fray. In addition to New America’s Open Technology Institute, an aggressive response came from Fight for the Future, whose director, Evan Greer, called on Senate leadership “to immediately remove Senator Maria Cantwell from her position as chair.” Greer also tweeted she was “appalled at the treatment that [Cantwell] has shown toward Sohn, the first openly LGBTQ+ nominee to the FCC.”

— Hands tied: Between Sen. Ben Ray Luján’s (D-N.M.) looming absence due to a medical emergency this week and Republican threats to boycott the vote on Sohn (and a broad slate of other Biden nominees) unless another hearing for the FCC nominee was scheduled, a committee staffer said Cantwell effectively had no choice.

“We all want the same thing,” Cantwell spokesperson Tricia Enright said in response to criticism from progressive groups. “And that’s to put Gigi Sohn on the FCC.”

FIRST IN MT: DEMOCRATS PRESS BIDEN ON PICKING CTO — Several House Energy and Commerce Democrats are urging Biden to fast-track the nomination of a U.S. chief technology officer, a federal post they say could help clean up the chaos over 5G airwaves.

— “With the backing of the White House, a CTO can be a powerful force in ensuring the administration speaks with one voice on spectrum matters,” wrote the Democrats, led by Congressional Spectrum Caucus co-chair Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) alongside seven Energy and Commerce colleagues. The lawmakers also pushed for Biden to bolster the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s authority to oversee federal spectrum use.

That’s notable given years of tussling among the FCC and federal agencies, with occasional confusion over which of them speaks for the executive branch on spectrum issues. (Historically, that’s supposed to be NTIA — but other agencies like DOT and the Pentagon have bashed FCC decisions they oppose.)

— Knock knock, who’s there? The CTO post, which requires Senate confirmation, has been vacant since Michael Kratsios, a Trump appointee, left more than a year ago. The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced in December it was actively seeking contenders for the position. But OSTP didn’t immediately comment when MT asked about the search.

Spectrum angst on display: Thursday’s House Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on 5G and aviation safety showed just how frustrated lawmakers are over recent interagency disputes over spectrum. Although House and Senate Commerce Committee lawmakers have pushed for an update to the 2003 coordination agreement between the FCC and NTIA as a potential fix, T&I Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) and his colleagues suggested there may need to be memorandums of understanding directly between the FCC and other agencies (like the FAA and Pentagon) to smooth over relations.

 “We recognize that the existing process for spectrum allocation did not serve anyone well,” FAA chief Steve Dickson told lawmakers. “We’re going to be at this not only with 5G C-band but with other spectrum auctions in the future.” He said the executive branch needs to do a broader evaluation of interagency coordination and create mechanisms for agencies like his own to share data with telecom providers.

Mark Latonero joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a senior adviser for AI. ... Kathy Bañuelos joined the Motion Picture Association as senior vice president of state government affairs. Vans Stevenson, who has led the State Government Affairs Department for 26 of his 32 years at the MPA, will become senior adviser.

ICYMI: Google, Facebook and Amazon slashed their PAC donations last year, driven in part by changes to big tech’s giving strategy after Jan. 6, Emily reports for Pros.

Stuck in neutral: This week’s House hearing on driverless cars — the first in either chamber for more than two years — ended in yet another stalemate, according to The Verge.

When the Apple bites back: Last April’s changes to Apple’s ad privacy policies cost Meta more than $10 billion in lost sales, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Only $84 billion left: Meta’s stock implosion hit Mark Zuckerberg’s bank account hard — he lost nearly $30 billion on Thursday, CNBC reports.

They’re not your monkeys: Vice reports that TikTok users are pressuring Amazon delivery drivers to dance for their Ring cameras and then posting their moves to the video-sharing site.

Tips, comments, suggestions? Send them along via email to our team: Heidi Vogt ([email protected]), Konstantin Kakaes ([email protected]), Brendan Bordelon ([email protected]), Emily Birnbaum ([email protected]), John Hendel ([email protected]), Rebecca Kern ([email protected]) and Leah Nylen ([email protected]). Got an event for our calendar? Send details to [email protected]. And don't forget: Add @MorningTech and @PoliticoPro on Twitter.

TTYL!