UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 28: Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., walks down the House steps after the last votes of the week on Friday, Feb. 28, 2020.
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The chief of staff to the brand new top Democrat on the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust lobbied on behalf of Amazon and Apple as recently as 2022, including on the very issues the rating member will oversee in his latest role, CNBC found based on public disclosures.
The background of California Democrat Lou Correa’s top staffer is more likely to further upset progressives who supported efforts to reform the foundations of the road around digital competition. René Muñoz has served as chief of staff to Correa since November 2022, based on Congress tracking site LegiStorm.
Before that, Muñoz worked on the lobbying firm Federal Street Strategies starting in May 2020, based on LinkedIn, where his clients included Amazon and Apple, together with other corporations. Earlier, he worked for other Democratic representatives in Congress.
In 2019, when the Democrats were in the bulk, Rhode Island Democratic Rep. David Cicilline spearheaded a significant investigation into the competition practices of Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook, and hauled their CEOs before Congress. He introduced a package of bills to limit their power. Correa voted against the laws.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., later became the highest Republican on the subcommittee and was a big ally to Cicilline in championing the tech antitrust bills. Nonetheless, once Republicans took control of the House, Buck was omitted and libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., was chosen to guide the committee.
The tech industry is more likely to cheer the shift from antitrust reform advocates like Cicilline and Buck as a reprieve from years of fighting against bills they saw as overly broad or having undue consequences on consumer privacy.
Demand Progress communications director Maria Langholz called Correa’s elevation to the role “a profound disappointment,” in a press release after his selection was announced, citing his opposition to a package of tech antitrust bills championed by Cicilline, who recently left Congress and vacated the spot.
It’s “embarrassing that House Democrats did not step up and fill the void that was left by Rep. Cicilline’s departure from the subcommittee,” added the progressive advocacy group’s spokesperson.
“The Congressman’s Chief of Staff has spent nearly 20 years in public service, most of which being spent within the halls of Congress,” a Correa spokesperson said in a press release to CNBC on which Muñoz was copied.
“He’s fought tirelessly to serve elected representatives from every corner of the country of their missions to uplift their constituents, and higher the lives of each working family. It’s due to that unwavering commitment and history of service that Congressman Correa brought him aboard his team — to work by his side in his fight for the hard-working taxpayers he represents right here in Orange County,” the statement said.
What Muñoz lobbied on
Public disclosures show that as recently as 2022, Muñoz lobbied Congress on the very areas which Correa is now overseeing.
Correa’s ability to influence the agenda while within the minority is proscribed, but rating members can often serve a crucial role in pushing back on the bulk or in messaging to industry and agencies. Some fear that ought to the Democrats take back the House, it should now be harder to exchange Correa with a more reform-minded Democrat.
The disclosures don’t indicate which specific bills Muñoz lobbied on. Nonetheless, in filings across multiple quarters, he’s listed as considered one of three lobbyists for Federal Street Strategies who worked on issue areas related to several of the bills that passed through the House Judiciary Committee while Cicilline led the antitrust subcommittee.
For instance, within the second and third quarters of 2021, Muñoz is listed as considered one of three lobbyists who engaged with Congress on behalf of Apple in areas related to the six bills that made up Cicilline’s cornerstone package on tech antitrust. That features the period right across the time that package passed through the House Judiciary Committee in June 2021.
Lobbying disclosures by Federal Street indicate that Muñoz was similarly considered one of three lobbyists who engaged on behalf of Amazon on areas related to those bills through the same period.
Among the many bills within the package were the Ending Platform Monopolies Act, which may lead to a breakup of dominant online platforms by prohibiting them from owning business lines that present a conflict of interest.
In addition they included the American Alternative and Innovation Online Act, which might prohibit top platforms from favoring their very own products over rivals’ of their marketplaces or discriminating against competitors. It was the precursor to a Senate version of the bill that gained steam last 12 months by passing out of the Judiciary committee in that chamber. Nevertheless it ultimately failed to achieve the ground after significant tech lobbying.
Again, it’s unclear from the filing which exact bills Muñoz lobbied on.
The tech industry and its trade groups have spent hundreds of thousands on lobbying, including against antitrust bills that might restrict key elements of their business models. Apple notably ramped up its overall lobbying spending in 2022, reaching $9.4 million, a 44% increase in comparison with the prior 12 months. Its fourth-quarter filing showed it lobbied on antitrust bills in addition to online privacy issues, taxes, semiconductor policy and more.
Amazon spent probably the most of the tech giants in 2022, coming in at $19.7 million. The e-commerce giant also lobbied on tech antitrust in addition to issues around cloud computing and counterfeit goods.
WATCH: Here’s how the lobbying industry works
