Big Tech Is Making an Investment in Congress

While a bipartisan antitrust bill targeting Big Tech makes its way through Congress, industry giants have been showering both Democrats and Republicans with tens of thousands of dollars in contributions. Their political action committees, executives, and lobbyists have targeted both critics and supporters of the legislation, which is aimed at reining in some of the most powerful tech companies in the world.

Google’s PAC made maxed-out contributions of $15,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee just one day after the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. The PAC also made maxed-out donations to the four congressional campaign committees in June 2021, shortly after the House Judiciary Committee approved its package of antitrust bills.

The Justice Department recently threw its support behind the legislation, led by Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, which would ban giants like Amazon and Google from favoring their own products over rivals’ on their platforms. Tech companies have aggressively fought the antitrust measures, spending nearly $70 million on lobbying Washington in 2021.

Apple executives dropped $66,000 on Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer’s campaign right after a bipartisan antitrust bill, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, was officially introduced in the Senate. While Amazon opposed a separate congressional effort to protect online shoppers from counterfeit products, Amazon executives and lobbyists were donating over $78,000 to Schumer and Senator Patty Murray, the No. 3 Democrat in the chamber. The fierce lobbying forced lawmakers to strip it from a broader package, and Amazon later succeeded in watering down the measure in the House.

“The proposals they have made over the years do not strengthen the bill, they strengthen Amazon’s hand in avoiding the bill,” Senator Dick Durbin, who led the measure, said at the time. “I, for one, am not going to stand by and watch this [be] watered down any further. We need to move on this.”

Google and Amazon’s PACs have also given big to House majority leader Steny Hoyer’s campaign committees, contributing  $20,000 from March 2021 to January 2022. A little less than two weeks after getting a contribution from Amazon’s PAC, Hoyer claimed the antitrust bills that had just passed in the Judiciary Committee were not ready for a full vote in the House. Congress’s…