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Representative Ken Buck on Wednesday criticized congressional leaders for failing to vote on antitrust bills targeting big tech companies.
The Colorado Republican helped draft a series of antitrust proposals that stuck with committees and prevented him from reaching the House floor for debate and voting.
“There is something wrong with a system of government that sits on six bills for a year,” said Mr. Buck. “Meanwhile, we have passed many post office naming bills. We passed a lot of other laws from the parliament. We made some false starts on some key pieces of legislation, but we didn’t address the threat to our democracy, the threat to freedom of speech posed by big technology.”
One of the bills is Mr. Buck’s Rhode Island Democrat Rep. The American Innovation and Choice Online Act, co-authored with David Cicilline. It aimed to prevent big tech companies like Amazon from choosing their products in a way that would harm their competitors’ products. Supplementary legislation was introduced in the Senate by Minnesota Democrat Sens Amy Klobuchar and Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley.
In a press conference with the bill’s other authors, Mr. Buck said Democratic leaders in Congress had allowed the bill to rot during a 16-month House investigation of major tech companies followed by 29-hour committee meetings to review the legislation.
Ms. Klobuchar unveiled a revised version of the bill last month. On Wednesday, he said the bill has undergone more than 100 changes since the original House version was introduced, and he doesn’t want it to be watered down with more revisions.
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As the campaign season continues, the window to raise bills is closing fast.
“This bill is due in June,” said Mr. Buck. “We have other bills to pass in June, and we should be able to tell the American people that Congress is working, that we are working for them, and that we care about them.”
Ms. Klobuchar said Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer had promised to hold a Senate vote in the early summer, but the bill would not be voted on until it had the necessary 60 votes in the upper house to survive.
“We need the vote because once you get to the days of August, we know — as stated before — that it’s not going to end and we have to end it,” said Ms. Klobuchar.
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