The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
View this email in your browser
Â
SEPTEMBER
**30, 2022**
Dayen on TAP
Antitrust Action Moves Forward
A package of bills to improve antitrust enforcement passes the House.
The House of Representatives took an uncharted step yesterday, passing a
package of three bills that would update America's antitrust laws for
the first time in decades. It wasn't the antitrust bill that most
people have been talking about, the one that would end Big Tech
platforms promoting their own products ahead of rivals. Chuck Schumer
hasn't even brought that to the Senate for a vote. But this more
modest set of actions reveals the coalition that could push that bill
over the line soon. More importantly, it asserts Congress' role in
antitrust, which for decades has been twisted and manipulated by the
courts.
The first of the three bills
is the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, which will give the Justice
Department's antitrust division more funding to pursue cases by
increasing merger filing fees on large companies and reducing them for
small and medium-sized ones. Second is the State Antitrust Enforcement
Venue Act, which passed the Senate unanimously
in June, and would end the practice of state antitrust suits getting
merged with private suits and put into the Multidistrict Litigation
process, moving them away from where they were filed (often to venues
friendly to monopolists, like when Big Tech cases are consolidated in
the Northern District of California). This will not only enhance
state-level antitrust enforcement but speed up the cases as well.
Finally, there's the Foreign Merger Subsidy Disclosure Act, which
would force any merging entities to disclose subsidies received from the
Chinese government. This is an odd choice for inclusion in this package,
but Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) wrote it, and so it will likely grab his vote
should this get to the Senate.
The three bills got merged into a package that passed 242-184
, and the makeup of that
vote is interesting. There were 39 Republican yes votes and 16
Democratic no votes. Eleven of those 16 Democrats were from California,
following the lead of Zoe Lofgren, who represents Silicon Valley and
whose daughter works on Google's legal team
.
Lofgren spoke on the House floor yesterday, making the absurd yet
predictable argument
that the
bill bans content moderation, a go-to claim for opponents of stronger
antitrust laws that attempts to split the left-right coalition. It
didn't work here because it's ridiculous to think that a bill
increasing filing fees and changing venues for antitrust cases would
somehow ban content moderation. The way she instinctively reached for
that argument as an all-purpose debate ender exposes the hollowness of
it when applied to other bills.
On the Republican side there were 39 yes votes, reflecting a kind of
power struggle within the GOP. There's a staunchly pro-business side
that only wants to use opposition to monopolies, mostly Big Tech, as a
way to work the refs and get better treatment on social media. Rep. Jim
Jordan (R-OH) leads this crew. And then there's the side that looks at
these issues more in the manner of actual populism, recognizing that
capitalism needs competition to survive. Based on these numbers, that
includes one-fifth of the House GOP caucus, which isn't much but
enough to carry bills to victory under the current partisan
configuration.
This bill should have a relatively easy time passing the Senate in the
lame duck session. One of its main components already passed the Senate
unanimously, another was written by a Republican, and the filing fee
piece is a bipartisan Durbin-Grassley bill. It certainly doesn't go as
far as the Big Tech self-preferencing bill; it doesn't address
specific industries. But it would quietly, slowly, make antitrust
enforcement better, and in a small way discourage the urge to
concentrate among the biggest corporations. It's worth celebrating
Congress's return to the stage in setting the competition rules.
~ DAVID DAYEN
Follow David Dayen on Twitter
[link removed]
Will Democratic Leaders Get Their Message Right?
Our polling suggests winning themes. BY STANLEY B. GREENBERG
The Possible World After Globalism
If we can dethrone the reign of Big Finance and Big Tech, what new
worlds can we imagine? BY BRIAN KETTENRING
New York's MAGA Republican From Wall Street
Tech entrepreneur Brandon Williams's past clients include a company
partly owned by the Chinese government. But he has earned Steve
Bannon's backing as a MAGA Republican. BY LEE HARRIS
Altercation: Politico Lambastes Washington's Insider Culture
Nina Totenberg's new book is roasted by the unlikeliest publication
imaginable. BY ERIC ALTERMAN
Donate to TAP's Midterm Tracker Travel Fund
to send our reporters to cover elections around the country. You can
tell us where to go, too! Â
Your 100% tax-deductible donation goes directly to the editorial team to
cover expenses for reporting and travel.
Thank you for your support! Â
Â
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2022 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
.
