In May, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promised to vote on bipartisan antitrust legislation that would take relatively modest but concrete steps to curb Big Tech’s expansive power.
But as the end of the year approaches, Schumer has yet to follow through on his pledge, angering the bill’s supporters, whose Democratic leadership has staunchly opposed the antitrust of corporate behemoths Apple, Google, Amazon and Meta. Measurements.
Opponents of the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) have spent nearly $277 million on all issues, outnumbering supporters six to one, according to a report released Friday by consumer advocacy group Public Citizen. It cost about $45 million.”
The report also found that “lobbyists opposing AICOA gave members of Congress $2.3 million more than their supporters during the 2022 cycle.”
AICOA, sponsored by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), is one of three antitrust bills that have been languishing in the Senate for months, despite support from Republicans and Democrats.
If passed, AICOA would prevent tech platforms like Amazon from unfairly promoting their own products.
The Open App Markets Act (OAMA), led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), aims to rein in Apple and Google’s dominance of the mobile app ecosystem, a bipartisan stance the companies have used to undermine and give away competition. Special treatment of their own products.
Antitrust campaigners fear that Schumer’s ties to Big Tech, one of his daughters is an Amazon lobbyist and another works for Meta, and a flood of campaign cash could hurt his chances in the Senate.
Donald Shaw and David Moore of the investigation Sludge The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DCCC), the campaign arm of Senate Democrats, said, “From Google lobbyist Michael D. Smith reported Thursday that Amazon lobbyist Brian Griffin, co-founder of the Amazon lobbying firm Akin Gump, has received multiple campaign endorsements. Heather Podesta of Apple’s lobbying firm Invariant, and James A. Ryan, co-founder of Amazon’s Lobbying Matters.
“Some of the bundled donations came in the third quarter of this year as sponsors of the bills asked to boost Schumer for votes, including donations from Google lobbyist Smith, who is a member of the DSCC’s ‘Majority Trust Legacy Circle,’ a special category of VIP donors,” Shaw and Moore added.
HuffPost “Big Tech executives are particularly targeted,” he said Friday [Schumer] in their successful efforts to delay a floor vote on the bill in the spring and summer.
“In June, he had phone calls from the CEOs of Google and Amazon,” the outlet continued. “And in August, Bloomberg reported that Schumer received $30,000 in donations from top lobbyists for Apple, Amazon and Alphabet, after receiving no matching sums in the previous two election cycles.”
Time is running out for the Senate to move antitrust bills during the Lim-Dak congressional session.
One possible vehicle for the measures, and lawmakers’ last chance to pass it this session, is the sprawling omnibus spending package that Congress must approve by the end of next week to avert a government shutdown.
BloombergEmily Birnbaum reported Friday “OAMA, there’s a serious eleventh hour push to get the app store account in the omnibus.”
“Both Senate Judiciary Leaders have signed,” Birnbaum wrote on Twitter. But he still needs Schumer and [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell’s support.”
“Senator Schumer’s legacy as Majority Leader will be defined by his failure to prioritize the well-being of workers, honest businesses and American democracy,” Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Freedom Project, said in a statement Friday. Undermining the influence of Big Tech and other corporate monopolies.
“Dozens of bipartisan hearings over the past two years have detailed the harms of Big Tech and monopoly power: the systematic abuse of workers and small businesses, the decline of free domestic journalism, child exploitation and surveillance, unfair barriers to innovation and upward mobility, and the undermining of democracy around the world.” erosion,” Miller said. With support from the White House and broad bipartisan cooperation to advance important bills that would reassert Congress’s authority over monopolies like Google and Amazon, Senator Schumer’s majority leadership legacy is on the line.
Fighting for the Future, Digital Rights Group; He tweeted. “These bills must pass,” he said Saturday.
“They have bipartisan support from the top,” the group added. “If they don’t pass, it’s because Joe Biden is sitting on his hands and Senator Schumer is doing Big Tech donors/friends/lobbyist family members a favor.”
