Congressman Ken Buck, a Republican, has teamed up with his Democrat colleague, Rep. David Cicilline, to take on Big Tech and the influence of monopolistic practices on the free market.
Buck and Cicilline, who serve Colorado's 4th and Rhode Island's 1st districts respectively, released identical press releases announcing the bipartisan effort earlier today, promising to deliver results to the American people.
“The Congressional Antitrust Caucus will give members of Congress who care about holding monopolies accountable and encouraging competition in the Big Tech marketplace an opportunity to bring competition policy to the Congress and to the minds of the American people,” said Buck. “This is a critically important policy area and one where thoughtful, bipartisan work can deliver results. By creating this caucus, we are showing the American people that we are in Washington to deliver results and that both sides of the aisle can come together to fight against these dangerous monopolistic corporations.”
“To ensure that our critical work to rein in Big Tech continues, I’m proud to announce the formation of the Congressional Antitrust Caucus with Congressman Buck,” Cicilline said. “As our bipartisan work in the 116th and 117th Congresses has shown, Big Tech’s anticompetitive, monopolistic behavior is stifling innovation, hurting consumers, and killing small businesses. We know how to fix this, and are committed to seeing this work through.”
The pair stressed that monopolies must be opposed in the free market, reasoning that "no market is free when monopolies act to unscrupulously eliminate competition."
Speculation has arisen that Buck's decision to form the committee with Ciciilline is a direct result of libertarian Thomas Massie being appointed to serve on the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee. In the previous session of Congress, it was Buck who served as the ranking member on that subcommittee, and some observers have questioned whether he believed that Massie's selection indicated that the GOP would be foregoing any major confrontation with tech giants this session.
The lawmakers intend to hold unofficial hearings and do outreach to other members of the legislature to educate them and advance their agenda.
