Ken Buck and David Shicilin form new antitrust caucus to ensure Big Tech crackdown efforts survive

The former leadership of the House’s Supreme Antitrust Committee is regrouping and making a renewed push to combat Big Tech amid lingering questions about succession plans.

Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicillin and Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck said Thursday they would form a new congressional antitrust caucus to ensure their efforts to crack down on Big Tech survive.

When Republicans took control of the House, Mr. Cicillin lost his position as head of the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Committee, and Mr. Buck replaced Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massey as the head earlier this year. Buck previously served as the Republican chairman of the committee.

“We know how to fix this and we are fully committed to resolving this issue,” Sicilin said in a statement.

Sicilin led the antitrust subcommittee in the House Judiciary Committee’s investigations into Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google, and produced a 450-page report in October 2020.

Buck then worked with Sicilin on a series of antitrust proposals aimed at cracking down on Big Tech.

Colorado Republicans said the new caucuses will ensure lawmakers pushing for an antitrust crackdown on big tech have the tools to help make it happen.

“By creating this caucus, we are telling the American people that we are in Washington for results and that both sides of the aisle can work together to fight these dangerous monopolies,” Buck said in a statement. I will show you,” he said.

The Antitrust Commission’s new leader’s plans aren’t entirely clear. Mr. Massey had a reputation as an avid free market advocate, and his choice was welcomed by free enterprise advocates.

Some conservatives who favor government intervention to undermine the grip of big tech companies have criticized Massey’s promotion from the Internet Accountability Project and others.