House Judiciary Democrats will brief Joe Biden's team today on their findings from a year-long tech antitrust investigation, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: Democrats and Republicans both agree that big tech giants need to be reeled in, but often disagree on the means to do so. Looping the Biden team in signals House Democrats want the policy recommendations in their report to get plenty of attention in a potential Biden administration.
Context: The House Judiciary Committee's antitrust report is expected to come out this week, but has been beset by partisan disagreements and complicated by information the committee received from Facebook late last week.
- One Hill source told Axios the process is still bipartisan. Still, one GOP source characterized the rollout, with its eleventh-hour snags, as a disaster for Democrats.
- Republicans have said they agree with many conclusions the majority has drawn about the conduct and size of big tech companies like Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook, but take issue with some of the remedies Democrats are suggesting.
- Republicans are also hoping to see in the committee's report something about tech being biased against conservatives — a long-shot request, as Democrats dispute the premise.
The bottom line: House Judiciary Democrats are forging ahead with their report, but it is yet to be seen how the last-minute partisan jockeying will affect the finished product.
