FFTF Urges Biden Oppose Proposed FY24 DOJ Antitrust Appropriation at SOTU
President Joe Biden should “refocus on the real harms of Big Tech” during his State of the Union address, including “monopoly power and surveillance capitalism as a business model,” Fight for the Future said Thursday. Biden’s speech was set to…
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begin at 9 p.m. EST. The president “should say clearly that he does not support slashing” the DOJ Antitrust Division’s appropriation for FY 2024, FFTF said. The Senate was expected to vote as soon as Thursday afternoon on the House-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act FY24 appropriations minibus package (HR-4366), which allocates DOJ Antitrust $233 million (see 2403060062). That’s more than 3% above what the agency received for FY 2023 but 28% less than what the Biden administration requested (see 2303130070). The White House has already said it supports the overall minibus. Biden should “call for strong privacy and antitrust legislation rather than legislation that will enable an increase in censorship and the expansion of surveillance,” FFTF said. “What we need are policies that regulate surveillance, not speech, and design, not content. We also need antitrust actions to break up monopolies to ensure there is space for privacy-preserving or community-owned platforms and tools to grow. We’d like to hear” Biden "champion ... antitrust enforcement by supporting agencies and giving them the tools and budget they need to do their jobs.”