UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 28: Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., walks down the House steps after the final votes of the week on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020.
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The chief of workers to the brand new prime Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust lobbied on behalf of Amazon and Apple as just lately as 2022, together with on the very points the rating member will oversee in his new function, CNBC discovered primarily based on public disclosures.
The background of California Democrat Lou Correa’s prime staffer is prone to additional upset progressives who supported efforts to reform the foundations of the highway round digital competitors. René Muñoz has served as chief of workers to Correa since November 2022, in accordance with Congress-tracking website LegiStorm.
Before that, Muñoz labored on the lobbying agency Federal Street Strategies starting in May 2020, in accordance with LinkedIn, the place his purchasers included Amazon and Apple, together with different firms. Earlier, he labored for different Democratic representatives in Congress.
In 2019, when the Democrats have been within the majority, Cicilline spearheaded a serious investigation into the competitors practices of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, and hauled their CEOs earlier than Congress earlier than introducing a package deal of payments to restrict their energy. Correa voted in opposition to the laws.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., later grew to become the highest Republican on the subcommittee and was a major ally to Cicilline in championing the tech antitrust payments. However, as soon as Republicans took management of the House, he was handed over to steer the committee in favor of libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky.
The tech trade is prone to cheer the shift from antitrust reform advocates like Cicilline and Buck as a reprieve from years of preventing in opposition to payments they noticed as overly broad or having undue penalties on client privateness.
Demand Progress Communications Director Maria Langholz referred to as Correa’s elevation to the function “a profound disappointment,” in an announcement after his choice was introduced, citing his opposition to a package deal of tech antitrust payments championed by former subcommittee Chair David Cicilline, D-R.I., who just lately left Congress and vacated the spot.
Langholz added that it is “embarrassing that House Democrats failed to step up and fill the void that was left by Rep. Cicilline’s departure from the subcommittee.”
“The Congressman’s Chief of Staff has spent nearly two decades in public service, most of which being spent in the halls of Congress,” a Correa spokesperson stated in an announcement to CNBC on which Muñoz was copied.
“He’s fought tirelessly to serve elected representatives from every corner of the country in their missions to uplift their constituents, and better the lives of every working family. It’s because of that unwavering commitment and history of service that Congressman Correa brought him aboard his team —to work by his side in his fight for the hard-working taxpayers he represents right here in Orange County.”
What Muñoz lobbied on
Public lobbying disclosures present that as just lately as 2022, Muñoz lobbied Congress on the very subject areas which Correa is now overseeing.
Correa’s capability to affect the agenda whereas within the minority is restricted, however rating members can typically serve an essential function in pushing again on the bulk or in messaging to trade and companies. Some worry that ought to the Democrats take again the House, it’ll now be tougher to switch Correa with a extra reform-minded Democrat.
The disclosures don’t point out which particular payments Muñoz lobbied on. However, in filings throughout a number of quarters, he’s listed as certainly one of three lobbyists for Federal Street Strategies who labored on subject areas associated to a number of of the payments that handed by the House Judiciary Committee whereas Cicilline led the antitrust subcommittee.
For instance, within the second and third quarters of 2021, Muñoz is listed as certainly one of three lobbyists who engaged with Congress on behalf of Apple in subject areas associated to the six payments that made up Cicilline’s cornerstone package deal on tech antitrust. That contains the interval proper across the time that package deal handed by the House Judiciary Committee in June 2021.
Lobbying disclosures by Federal Street point out that Muñoz was equally certainly one of three lobbyists who engaged on behalf of Amazon on subject areas associated to these payments throughout the identical interval.
Among the payments within the package deal have been the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, which may result in a breakup of dominant on-line platforms by prohibiting them from proudly owning enterprise traces that current a battle of curiosity. They additionally included the American Choice and Innovation Online Act, which might prohibit prime platforms from favoring their very own merchandise over rivals’ of their marketplaces or discriminating in opposition to opponents. It was the precursor to a Senate model of the invoice that gained steam final 12 months by passing out of the Judiciary Committee in that chamber. But it in the end failed to achieve the ground after important tech lobbying.
Again, it is unclear from the submitting which precise payments Muñoz lobbied on.
The tech trade and its commerce teams have spent thousands and thousands on lobbying, together with in opposition to antitrust payments that may prohibit key components of their enterprise fashions. Apple notably ramped up its general lobbying spending in 2022, reaching $9.4 million, a 44% enhance in comparison with the prior 12 months. Its fourth quarter submitting confirmed it lobbied on antitrust payments in addition to on-line privateness points, taxes, semiconductor coverage and extra.
Amazon spent the a lot of the tech giants in 2022, coming in at $19.7 million for the 12 months. Amazon additionally lobbied on tech antitrust in addition to points round cloud computing and counterfeit items.
WATCH: Here’s how the lobbying trade works
Source: www.cnbc.com”