Google needs regulation. Republicans are too busy screaming about bias.

Members of the conservative majority on the House Judiciary Committee spent much of their time hammering [Google CEO Sundar] Pichai with baseless accusations that Google rigs its search results to censor conservative content. The bias obsession has distracted from the more important subjects that Congress has failed to address these past two years. That seems likely to change when Democrats take control of the House in January.

The first subject likely to draw more attention is privacy. Google has gotten ahead of the impending debate by signaling its support for a federal privacy framework, but it’s up to lawmakers to turn vague protection principles into meaningful policy. Committee members also expressed interest in examining Google’s potential anticompetitive behavior. Finally, legislators lambasted Pichai over Project Dragonfly, Google’s exploratory effort to launch a search engine in China. Pichai insisted time and time again that Google has “no plans” to reenter the Chinese market, but he refused to rule out the possibility of a product that would aid in government repression and surveillance.

Fewer minutes spent harping on bias allegations might have allowed time for further-reaching inquiries. Hopefully, that’s what the new year will bring.