Missouri Republican Josh Hawley is struggling to gain support for his anti-tech monopoly legislation from both parties because of the controversy following his actions the day of the Capitol attack.
In the past few weeks, Hawley has introduced two Big Tech-bashing bills that have not received any support from Democrats or Republicans, even though his policies are popular and there is bipartisan agreement to hold the tech giants more accountable through increased regulation and government intervention.
The two bills, the “Trust-Busting for the Twenty-First Century Act” and the “Bust Up Big Tech Act,” are designed to crack down on mergers and acquisitions by mega-corporations and to break up Big Tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, which Hawley says have acted unfairly and anticompetitively.
For much of the past two years, Hawley has been the face of the conservative backlash against Big Tech, garnering praise from both Democrats and former President Donald Trump for taking a stand against Silicon Valley and introducing multiple relevant bills related to data privacy, antitrust, and content moderation.
Yet his tech agenda has been complicated by bipartisan criticism for his actions related to the Capitol riots. In particular, he received flack for raising his fist in support of those protesting outside the Capitol and sending fundraising messages to supporters in the days before the Capitol attack, saying he would be “leading the charge” to challenge President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
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“I don’t pay attention to what he says anymore,” said Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California. “He’s not taken seriously by people in Congress, both Democrats and Republicans. He’s become the butt of jokes. I used to take him seriously as a senator until he sabotaged himself.” Khanna has worked closely with Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky on troop withdrawal and Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Todd Young of Indiana on tech innovation and China.
Hawley was one of eight senators who voted to object to Biden’s victory in the 2020 election by refusing to certify the Electoral College votes from Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Hawley were also the focus of an ethics complaint from Senate Democrats for allegedly stoking the mob that broke into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6.
“Hawley is in the penalty box because he acted like a fool in January,” said Bill Kovacic, a conservative professor of antitrust at George Washington University. “He’s radioactive and has chased away people even from his own party for a while.”
“Democrats used to fawn over him as someone who could help achieve their tech goals. But that conversation has come to abrupt halt after Jan. 6. No one is talking with him or including him anymore,” said Kovacic, who was the Republican chairman of the Federal Trade Commission under President George W. Bush.
The FTC and the Justice Department are responsible for antitrust enforcement and tech regulations primarily through investigations, lawsuits, penalties, and fines.
When asked for comment on Democrats and Republicans not working with him on legislation due to his role in the Capitol attack, Hawley told the Washington Examiner, “I hope that’s not the case” but also acknowledged “that very well could be true.”
He added that he was open to working with “anybody on any issue” so long as it was good policy that benefited the people of his state.
The Missouri senator, author of a new book called The Tyranny of Big Tech, also blamed Democrats as being beholden to Big Tech campaign donations, which he said played a role in their lack of desire to work with him on tech legislation.
However, Democrats have indicated that they want to take on Big Tech companies as aggressively as Hawley does.
Hawley’s recent “Trust-Busting” antitrust bill aimed at stopping all large mergers and acquisitions, particularly those of tech giants, has significant overlap and similar measures to an antitrust bill introduced in February by Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, the chairwoman of the Senate antitrust panel.
Democrats have suggested that, if not for Hawley’s actions on Jan. 6, they would have worked with him on bipartisan anti-tech monopoly legislation that would have the highest chance of passage in the Senate.
“You see [anti-tech bipartisanship] in Hawley’s bill, and I have all kinds of issues with him in other ways, but you see it with that bill,” Klobuchar said during an interview with the Verge this week.
Klobuchar told the Washington Examiner last week that she supported some parts of Hawley’s antitrust bill but that she was focused on pushing her own legislation.
Conservatives say Hawley’s name could doom any legislation he is on.
“At this point, there’s not a lot of benefit to having Hawley’s brand on a bill,” said Neil Chilson, acting chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission for a year during the Trump administration.
“Klobuchar and others don’t get much from having Hawley on a bill. There’s not a lot of gain, but there are big downsides,” Chilson added, who is now a senior research fellow on tech issues at the Charles Koch Institute, a libertarian research organization.
Liberals say that Democrats are now better off finding and working with other Senate Republicans to get bipartisan support for tech bills.
“Hawley was a rising star on a number of tech issues, making him an easy partner for Democrats to dance with,” a Democratic tech lobbyist who speaks frequently with lawmakers in Congress on antitrust issues said. “But since Jan. 6, that calculus has changed. Democrats now are looking harder for somebody better to partner with because many voters expect them to after his actions on Jan. 6.”
The lobbyist said Republicans such as Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, the ranking chairman of the Senate antitrust subcommittee, or Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas would be better candidates for Democrats to partner on antitrust and Big Tech accountability legislation even if there is less policy agreement between them and liberals.
Lee and Cotton did not support any attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election.
Nevertheless, conservatives say Hawley’s support or lack thereof for an antitrust reform bill could play an influential role in deciding what legislation finally gets passed in the Senate.
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“It requires Hawley to take a subsidiary role, he won’t be the point guard or the face of the antitrust movement anymore, but he could still be effective and play an important role,” said Kovacic, the former Republican FTC chairman.
