Rep. Buck urges GOP to back Big Tech antitrust bills: 'Time that consumers had a voice'

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., urged fellow GOP lawmakers to back bipartisan legislation to curb the power of Big Tech companies, Monday, after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy opposed bills to break up some of the country's biggest brands.

Buck, a ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, is leading the charge on multiple pieces of legislation to rein in Big Tech - including the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act of 2021, which has been backed by a bipartisan coalition of 52 attorneys general.

Buck joined "America Reports" to defend the bipartisan effort to "empower" consumers.

"These are not Democrat bills and these are not big government bills," Buck told Fox News' Sandra Smith. "These bills change the power structure from the Silicon Valley giants to the consumer. And it is so important that we do this because, for one reason, it helps consumers. But secondly, it also deals with conservative speech being censored."

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McCarthy reportedly opposes giving too much enforcement power to antitrust agencies, suggesting through a spokesperson who spoke to the Wall Street Journal that he would be offering an alternative proposal amid a GOP divide over how to regulate America's biggest companies.

Buck says an 18-month investigation into Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook reveals the brands have been acting "borderline illegally" for years and warned that monopolies will continue to grow stronger and censor more speech if not addressed.

"For 20 years, big tech has had an antitrust amnesty," Buck said. "They have conducted hundreds -- 750 mergers in the Obama administration alone -- that went unscrutinized… Forget about the antitrust laws, look at the criminal laws, and there are hundreds of lawsuits now against these companies for their activities."

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Buck is confident that Republicans will find ultimately find common ground and move forward on the issue.

"I think we're having a family discussion right now, and this is the starting point," he said. "And it's a great legislative process that we're going through."