Warren, Ocasio-Cortez Float Long-Shot Bid to Pause M&A in Crisis

April 28, 2020 Media

Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are proposing to ban corporate mergers while the coronavirus crisis persists, as the Democrat Party’s progressive wing seeks to reassert itself after falling short in the presidential primaries.

Warren of Massachusetts and Ocasio-Cortez of New York said Tuesday that with smaller companies falling victim to the economic turmoil at a higher rate, large corporations with cash reserves bolstered by up to $4 trillion in Federal Reserve lending could increase their power over the U.S. economic landscape.

“As we fight to save livelihoods and lives during the coronavirus pandemic, giant corporations and private equity vultures are just waiting for a chance to gobble up struggling small businesses and increase their power through predatory mergers,” Warren said in a statement.

The bill was hailed by Sarah Miller, executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, a nonprofit group that aims to rein in corporate power.

Bills already passed by Congress to bolster the economy amid the crisis “supercharged big corporations’ and Wall Street’s ability to prey on and abuse small businesses and the communities they support,” Miller said in a statement.