Democratic Representative David Cicilline was quoted as saying in an interview that the antitrust panel is to launch "10 or more" pieces of legislation targeting Apple, Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Facebook.
The interview was published by Axios on Sunday, but Cicilline's offices declined to comment, according to Reuters.
The interview quoted Cicilline as saying that a series of smaller bills would be harder to defeat and that they are likely to be ready in May.
His quotes read: "If you look at the way these technology companies have staffed up with their lobbying and the money they're investing in Washington, it's designed ... to prevent any changes to the current ecosystem that benefits them enormously."
"My strategy is you'll see a number of bills introduced, both because it's harder for (the tech companies) to manage and oppose, you know, 10 bills as opposed to one.
"It also is an opportunity for members of the committee who have expressed a real interest or enthusiasm about a particular issue, to sort of take that on and champion it."
Axios called the approach the "legislative equivalent of a swarm of drones rather than a single, hulking battleship that would be simpler to defeat".
Under Cicilline’s leadership the anti-trust panel released a 449-page report in October 2020, which detailed alleged abuses of market power by Apple, Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Facebook. Referencing that work in this recent interview Cicilline said he would use this range of bills "to advance all the recommendations" in the investigation.
The news broke the same weekend that Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey was reported to have lobbied the British government to introduce a legal requirement for internet giants.
Specifically, it would cover such things as Google taking down financial fraud websites.
The Sunday Times broke the story, reporting that Bailey had been lobbying Home Secretary Priti Patel, the interior minister, about the issue, asking for the measure to be added to an Online Harms Bill expected to be put before parliament this year.
However, BoE said it does not comment on "private meetings" and declined to share further details.
The Online Harms Bill is intended to force internet giants to tackle such online issues as child grooming and terrorism, however, despite the increased activity over the course of the pandemic, it does not yet extend to financial fraud online.
