Progressive campaign blasts California Democrat as ‘Big Tech’s Best Friend’

A progressive campaign is slamming Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, over his opposition to a series of antitrust reform bills that target dominant tech companies.

A mailer sent Friday to more than 36,000 individual constituents of Correa by The P Street Project, the lobbying arm of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, blasts Correa’s vote against advancing the antitrust reform bills last Congress and calls him “Big Tech’s Best Friend in Congress”

Correa has “betrayed consumers and left small businesses at the mercy of Big Tech and other monopolies,” the mailer says, according to a copy exclusively shared with The Hill.

Correa took the reins as the ranking member of the committee in June after Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) resigned from the House. The P Street Project is pushing Correa to support three antitrust reform bills — the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, the Open App Markets Act and the AMERICA Act.

“At a time when President Biden and Congressional Democrats are trying to lower costs for families by fighting monopolies and price gouging, it makes no sense for the top Democrat on the antitrust subcommittee to put corporate tech monopolies over consumers and small businesses that would benefit from a competitive marketplace,” P Street managing director Emma Lydon said in a statement.

“We are making sure that Rep. Correa’s constituents know that he has been out of steps with voters — in hopes that he reverses course,” Lydon added.

In response to the criticism, a spokesperson for Correa said the congressman “was elected to office to fight on behalf of his constituents and his state, and takes those fights directly to Washington’s front door.”

“Unfortunately, being in the minority means House Republicans set the legislative agenda—and we’ve gotten no indication that these bills, which have yet to be introduced this Congress, are at the forefront of it,” a Correa spokesperson said.

“Should they come up in the future, the Congressman is always happy to engage in robust discussion and debate—at home and in D.C.—on the merits, as he does with any matter that comes up during legislative business, to ensure that the interests of his constituents are put first.”

The pressure campaign from P Street comes after antitrust reform advocates failed to get key antitrust reform bills through Congress last year, despite bipartisan support in both chambers.

Two key proposals — the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which aims to prevent dominant platforms from referencing their own products and services or rivals, and the Open App Markets Act, which would add regulation to dominant app stores — failed to make it to floor votes in either chamber after advancing out of committee.

While the bills had some bipartisan support, they were derailed in part by opposition from California Democrats, who represent the state that’s home to most of the dominant tech platforms targeted by the reform efforts.

The proposals also faced fierce lobbying campaigns from tech companies and their powerful industry groups.

Even if Correa’s position moved, the antitrust reform bills face a tougher battle in the current House. GOP leadership has focused on a tech agenda aimed at content moderation, not market competition.

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