6 big tech bills clear 1st check

Opposition rises to limiting power

WASHINGTON — In a marathon markup meeting that lasted 29 hours, the House Judiciary Committee approved all six of the bills in a sweeping antitrust package that takes aim at big technology companies and attempts to reel in the giants’ power.

But the lengthy debate that began Wednesday and did not finish until Thursday afternoon illuminated the fissures within both parties as tech companies continue lobbying lawmakers, and some California delegates — whose districts encompass many tech headquarters — voiced skepticism.

The committee advanced the sixth bill — the one with perhaps the broadest implications for tech giants — Thursday afternoon in a 21-20 vote.

The bills, which have some bipartisan support, target the far-reaching power of the companies, especially Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google. The committee spent the first several hours of the hearing debating the two least controversial bills — a

measure that would update merger filing fees, and another that deals with venues for antitrust suits filed by state attorneys general.

The bills with more substantial changes passed throughout the night, including one to prevent tech giants from buying rising competitors; one to prohibit the companies from giving their own products and services preference over those from competitors; and another to make it easier to use products from different tech companies together.

The last bill, passed Thursday afternoon, would enable federal regulators to sue to break up large tech companies when their role as operator of a platform presents an “irreconcilable conflict of interest” in their other lines of business.

That could spell trouble especially for Amazon, which operates a major e-commerce marketplace where it also competes as a seller of its own goods, and potentially for Google, which ranks videos in its search engine while also running its own major video service, YouTube. (Amazon founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

The companies are making a full-court press in lobbying lawmakers to defeat the bills, according to reporting in Gizmodo and The New York Times. The push is made clear in public calls from industry trade organizations and the companies themselves.

The package has the support of Judiciary antitrust subcommittee chairman David Cicilline, D-R.I., who led an exhaustive House investigation into big tech companies last year that preceded the bills.

“Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google are gatekeepers to the online economy,” Cicilline said early in the committee markup Wednesday. “They bury or buy rivals and abuse their monopoly powers — conduct that is harmful to consumers, competition, innovation and our democracy.” He is supported by a number of Democratic and Republican lawmakers, though the parties are not consistent in their support.

CALIFORNIA OPPOSITION

California representatives from both parties — including Democrats Zoe Lofgren, Eric Swalwell and and Lou Correa; and Republicans Darrell Issa and Tom McClintock — opposed elements of the package. “The package poses harm to American consumers and the U.S. economy and left members on both sides of the aisle with basic questions that have yet to be answered,” they wrote in a joint statement after the vote.

“In my district, small businesses depend on services provided by these tech companies,” Correa added in a statement. “Amazon has opened a distribution center and is looking to open a few more. These are goodpaying jobs with benefits.”

During debate of the final bill, Lofgren raised concerns about the stability of tech workers’ jobs if it should pass.

“This bill would essentially, metaphorically, take a grenade and just roll it into the tech economy and just blow it up, and see what happens,” she said. “I think that’s unreasonable, I think its unnecessary and I think it could lead to severe adverse consequences for Americans who live in my district, who are employed in the tech sector.”

Later in the hearing, the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who also represents a tech-heavy district, threw the words back at Lofgren.

“I would say the grenade that is being thrown right now is being thrown at small businesses,” she said.

“THE BIG ENCHILADA”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who often spars with Democrats but agrees on a big tech crackdown, also urged lawmakers to advance the final bill, which he called the package’s “foundation.”

“This bill is the big enchilada,” he said.

Other conservatives want to curtail big tech’s power, just not in the same way. The day before the markup, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, partnered with former President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on an opinion piece for Fox News calling for Republicans to oppose the bills.

“These Democrat bills will only make things worse,” they wrote. “If you think Big Tech is bad now, just wait until Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google are working in collusion with Big Government.”

Democrats have approached antitrust legislation by focusing on tech companies’ growing economic concentration, while Republicans have focused on their claims that tech companies have stifled conservative voices online.

Tech companies and many trade organizations representing the industry have warned against passing the bills.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., confirmed that Apple CEO Tim Cook called her to say the bills would harm innovation. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the call.