WASHINGTON – With the 118th Congress underway, the Competitiveness Coalition today issued letters to six U.S. Senators and seven U.S. Representatives encouraging them to withhold support from future antitrust legislation that would wreak economic havoc and pour cold water on innovators now and into the future. Click HERE to read one of the letters.

In each of the letters, former U.S. Senator and Ambassador Scott Brown, chair of the Competitiveness Coalition, outlines how legislation similar to the American Innovation and Choice Online (AICO) Act would threaten U.S. global competitiveness, harm hard-working Americans, and upend the consumer welfare standard by expanding the reach of the federal government into private businesses.

“As many economists are warning of a looming recession, now is not the time to be further squeezing middle-class budgets with overreaching antitrust efforts, especially when many of the companies who would be impacted by the Klobuchar bill have been sharply reducing the prices for consumers and businesses over the last 30 years,” wrote Chair Brown. 

Acknowledging that conservatives are rightly concerned about online content moderation, Brown states that passing legislation “under the guise of antitrust is not the answer” to these frustrations. 

“Had it become law, the AICO would have had no impact on content or addressed censorship allegations. It would not have restored banned conservatives to Twitter. It was instead a big-government intrusion into some of our country’s most successful private sector companies that would have far-reaching and negative economic consequences while leaving issues of content unaddressed,” stated Brown. 

In a recent television interview, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) signaled her intent to continue pushing her antitrust agenda in the new Congress. 

An identical letter was sent to each of the Republican co-sponsors of the AICO in the 117th Congress, including: 

• U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
• U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
• U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA)
• U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)
• U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO)
• U.S. Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) 
• U.S. Rep. Brian Babin (TX-36)
• U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (CO-4)
• U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (FL-19)
• U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden (TX-5)
• U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (AZ-9)
• U.S. Rep. Brian Mast (FL-21)
• U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-1) 

For more information, please visit competitivenesscoalition.com. Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com. 

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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.