A bipartisan package of anti-Big Tech bills passed at the committee level last week is not ready to move to the House floor yet, Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland said Tuesday.
The six sweeping antitrust bills aimed at reining in tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook passed the House Judiciary Committee last week with rare bipartisan support. But the bills also face opposition from members of both parties.
“Right now, they’re not ready for the floor, and I don’t want to make a prediction as to when they’re going to be ready,” Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the House, told reporters on Tuesday.
The legislative package, which represents the largest expansion of the federal government’s antitrust powers in generations, is expected to face an uphill challenge and intense debate on the House floor because of opposition from centrist Democrats, one of the largest caucuses in Congress.
Many of them say some of the bills are too broad and could harm innovation, resulting in unintended consequences to consumers.
“There was disagreement among the Democrats in the committee, and not every Democrat voted for it, and some very senior members opposed that. So, I think there’s a lot of discussion to be had before we get to my scheduling bills for the floor,” Hoyer said.
On the other hand, many Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan of Ohio, oppose the bills because they fail to address censorship of conservatives online.
Nevertheless, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California has endorsed the bills and is expected to bring them to a vote on the House floor later this year.
Many prominent Republicans aggressively promote the antitrust package, including House antitrust subcommittee ranking member Ken Buck of Colorado, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah, and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas.
Buck and Gaetz said multiple times last week the bills were “conservative” in how they were written, address the issue of censorship through increased competition, and increase innovation by forcing Big Tech companies to play fairly.
Hoyer also said he supported the gist of the antitrust package but said a number of changes must be made before it was ready to become law.
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“They are very important pieces of legislation, and I think there’s a broad agreement that antitrust in the social media field needs to be addressed and the power needs to be addressed, but it needs to be done so in a way that is constructive, not destructive,” he said.
