Republicans want to go after Big Tech. But they’re now openly clashing with each other over a bipartisan effort to do just that.
The House Judiciary Committee will consider a package of sweeping bills on Wednesday to crack down on the country’s largest tech companies, a proposal that’s won support from members of both parties after years of complaints from Congress about industry abuses.
But these efforts have also exposed deep divisions in the GOP over how best to rein in Silicon Valley’s power, with House Republicans sparring over the legislative push. Some GOP lawmakers have blamed leadership-aligned lobbyists for working behind the scenes to tank the measures, while others in the conference claim their colleagues went behind leaders’ backs to hash out a deal with Democrats.
The infighting, which has spilled out into public view in the run-up to the consequential committee vote, underscores that the politics of antitrust don’t cut neatly across ideological lines, despite widespread agreement over the need to curb the power of tech giants. And the schism among conservatives hascreated some particularly strange partnerships in the halls of Congress.
Look no further than progressive Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) linking arms on antitrust with GOP Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Ken Buck of Colorado, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, or leading liberal Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) co-sponsoring a bill with stalwart Trump backer Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas). Such unlikely alliances also pit those very same Republicans against two powerful Trump allies: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.
“I have a ton of respect for Jim Jordan. He literally was the person I looked up to and wanted to run for Congress to be like,” Buck said in an interview. “And so, it’s disappointing in some ways that we don’t share the same views about this, but it’s not surprising.”
“I think this is just a family disagreement,” he added.
A handful of Republicans on the Judiciary panel could join Democrats in support of the antitrust bills even as Jordan rails against the measures, creating an unusual head-butting moment between a ranking member and the rank-and-file. Jordan’s team has been asking Republican offices for a heads-up if members plan to vote for the bills, according to a GOP source, but feels confident most of the Republican committee members will be on his side.
And Jordan has repeatedly labeled the antitrust effort as a group of “Democrat bills,” even though the package was drafted in part by one of his Judiciary subcommittee leaders — underscoring lingering intraparty tensions on the panel. That dynamic could snarl the antitrust package’s path in the Senate.
The five antitrust bills, which would have far-reaching implications for the economy, are aimed at prohibiting Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google from exploiting their dominant position in the digital marketplace to elbow out competitors. Each of the bills takes on a separate part of the tech companies’ business models, making it easier for the government to penalize the Silicon Valley giants.
Some of the provisions might also affect Microsoft, a tech giant that has typically escaped scrutiny in Washington’s most recent antitrust wars.