Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. LOFGREN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, and I do so reluctantly, because title I, raising the fees for enforcement, I am for that. As a matter of fact, I am a cosponsor of that bill. And title II, the foreign measure, I am for that.

But title III is going to create a problem. This has been advanced as if it is noncontroversial. That is not the case. It is complicated. Let me try and be very simple.

In 1968, Congress enacted a provision where if there was a multiplicity of antitrust lawsuits filed by State AGs who have concurrent jurisdiction, a senior panel could consolidate the cases so you wouldn't have inconsistent discovery, inconsistent decisions outside of the various regions.

You don't need that with the Department of Justice because they do the consolidation internally when they bring the case. That is why it worked for the AGs, and it has worked very well for a long time.

Contrary to what some have said, this is not a tech change. This is a venue change for all businesses, which is why I think the Chamber of Commerce said they would score the vote.

I think we need to listen to the main proponent, Mr. Buck, on this. Last night, during the rule debate, he said Big Tech is crushing competition and crushing conservative speech, and that is what his venue bill is about, to prevent moderation of speech.

Content moderation is important. We have seen, in the January 6th Committee, a lot of material that has spread lies, that has incited violence, and that content should be moderated. It should not be subject to a bogus effort by State AGs to prevent content moderation through the antitrust provision.

To claim that that would not happen, I mean, AGs can bring cases right now without this provision--in fact, California just did against Amazon. Fine. Go at it if you have a case. But if you don't think that the attorney general of Texas, who is currently hiding from a process server and facing other legal complications, wouldn't try to use this to undermine content moderation, I think you are sadly mistaken.

That would be, I am sure, for my Democratic colleagues, not their intent, but that would be a very sad result that would not be good for our country.

Now, if we turn this bill down, I am sure what will happen is that the Committee on Rules will put the first two provisions that have broad support in our party back up, and I will happily vote for them, to give the resources for enforcement and the like.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on this measure, with great sadness that we have been put in this spot.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source