‘Algorithm Architects’ in Congress: Lofgren’s Million-Dollar Connection Not Unique

Family Ties to Tech Giants Raise Questions

Several lawmakers overseeing tech giants, such as Meta, Amazon, Google, and Apple, have children working for the companies they are supposed to regulate. 

US Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat known for her strong opposition to antitrust bills aimed at reigning in Big Tech, has a daughter who works for Google. 

Lofgren is the Ranking Member of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, while her daughter, Sheila Zoe Lofgren Collins, is a top lawyer for Google.

While Lofgren may have the highest profile of the “Algorithm Architects” in Congress, the family circle of lawmakers and tech companies includes more than a dozen members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, who have children who work or recently worked for tech giants such as Google, Amazon, Meta (the parent company of Facebook), or Apple. 

Schumer’s Daughters in Tech

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s daughter, Jessica Schumer, is a registered lobbyist at Amazon. His daughter, Alison Schumer, is a product marketing manager at Facebook.

Lofgren and Schumer decide the fate of antitrust bills targeting the tech industry.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen has been a member of several committees regulating the tech industry, including Banking, Appropriations, and Foreign Relations, while his daughter is the director of global policy at Meta. 

Senator Rob Portman’s son worked as a People Operations Rotational Associate at Google from 2014 to 2016, while Portman helped craft and pass HR 1865, also known as SESTA-FOSTA, representing a significant reform in Congress’s “techlash” against online platforms. 

Portman’s office claims his son had no role in lobbying or public policy during his time at Google. He did not have to lobby anyone. The dad knows where his son works. It is a form of silent lobbying. 

G.K. Butterfield, a former House Energy and Commerce Committee member, criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for employing too many Caucasian men and advocated for Caucasian women to replace them at Facebook. Butterfield found no such Caucasian male issues at Google after his Caucasian daughter became Google’s global head of inclusion from 2016 to 2020. 

Like Lofgren, these congress members say they are committed to balancing the power dynamics by holding Big Tech accountable. This may mean nothing more than enhanced accounting required when balancing their kid’s burgeoning bank account balances.

All in the Families

One way to combat hypocritical lawmakers from making decisions over Big Tech while their children work for Big Tech is to require any Congressmember to recuse themselves from voting or being members of any committee that directly regulates this industry.

Of course, that would mean these same Big Tech companies would not hire their children, and Zoe Lofgren’s daughter might have to head to the unemployment line along with a dozen other kids from the privileged lawmaker’s caste. 

It won’t happen. Instead, we hear the sanctimonious braying from the antiquated Congressmember who has become inordinately wealthy over 28 years in Congress, that her daughter’s employment has absolutely nothing to do with how she votes, which somehow always aligns with Big Tech’s interests.

The Upcoming 18th District Race

This year, the US Congressional Race in the 18th district will give voters the chance to deserve something more than to shake their heads in dazzled wonderment at how everything is out of control, that real estate prices in their district prohibit their children from buying homes and living in the district (while Lofgren’s daughter can afford to buy the best home out of her mama’s Google-bought allowance) and that the old values are disappearing amid hypocrisy and corruption, and deliberate gentrification meant to displace those who built this community in favor of those who grasp, obtain and exclude.

The millionaire Lofgren is the ranking Democrat for the committee that oversees Big Tech. Her daughter works for Big Tech.

That alone tells intelligent voters enough to know when the time has come to vote for change.

In a coming post, we will examine the redistricting of the 18th District in California and reveal it was an undisguised attempt to expand the gentrification of the newly included areas in the 18th. Big Tech knows that Lofgren is virtually unassailable, so they approved a radical change in the 18th.

A Closer Look at Redistricting

Our upcoming post, “Gentrification and Corruption: 18th District Redistricting Exposed,” will explain how, after buying Congressmember Lofgren, certain individuals in the Democratic party aligned with Big Tech calculated that the “jungle” primary (on March 5) would almost ensure her re-election. Their calculation is that the Republican, Peter Hernandez, would face her. With the enormous Democratic plurality, he hasn’t a ghost of a chance in the general election. We will explain how if these fundraising power-brokers perceive that Democratic primary challenger Charlene Nijmeh has the shadow of opportunity to overtake Hernandez and get the number two spot in the primary, a concerted attack on her will take place in mid-January.

Big Tech operatives have calculated that a vote for Hernandez in the primary is “a vote for Lofgren.”

Big Tech’s only risk is if Nijmeh is number 2 in the jungle primary. Then, the general becomes a wild card.

Frank Parlato