Google CEO Pichai Agrees to Testify Before House Judiciary

Google CEO Sundar Pichai agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee this fall. That came after meeting House Republicans Friday led by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va. (see 1809270044).

Senate Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., criticized Pichai for offering a “last-minute” meeting with his office Thursday, then sitting down with a partisan group of House Republicans. “It just shows an enormous lack of understanding about how Washington works,” Warner told us Wednesday. The Senate Intelligence Committee left an empty seat for Google at a recent hearing (see 1809050057) after the platform declined to send a top executive to testify alongside Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. “The committee offered the chairman of Google the opportunity to sit down in a public hearing a few weeks ago. He turned us down,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., told us.

Pichai, in a statement, described Thursday and Friday as “constructive and informative.” He cited 22 instances of Google testifying before Congress since 2008. The platform remains committed to an active dialogue with both parties, he said, working “on a variety of issues, explaining how our products help millions of American consumers and businesses, and answering questions as they arise. I am personally committed to testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in due course.” Pichai also met with Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Thursday and reportedly convened with White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow last week.

Warner said Google made a last-minute offer to “see folks” Thursday, but “I just wasn’t able to schedule it with 48 hours' notice on a day that’s very legislatively filled.” The committee has “a lot of questions” for Pichai about YouTube, social media and reported plans to launch a Chinese version of Search (see 1809260050), and it should be done in a “full setting,” Warner said.

Schatz told us Wednesday his Thursday morning sit-down with Pichai was a “courtesy” call. “I’m sure we’ll get into some substance, but it’s just to establish a working relationship,” he said. “I’ll obviously want to talk about the federal privacy bill and making sure it’s sufficiently strong.” A Schatz aide confirmed the meeting on privacy happened as scheduled.

By agreeing to testify, Pichai is committed to “having a conversation that’s long overdue,” McCarthy said, according to a summary of the meeting. House Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., previously threatened to subpoena testimony from the executive (see 1809060037). “I look forward to explaining what we can do better and have a productive discussion,” Pichai said. McCarthy claimed two-thirds of adults get their news from social media and Google has 90 percent of searches. Silicon Valley has made progress, he said, but transparency is lacking, which is eroding “trust and perhaps worse -- harm[ing] consumers.”

Republican attendees included Reps. Jim Jordan, Ohio; Will Hurd, John Ratcliffe, Lamar Smith and Bill Flores, all Texas. Other GOP Reps. were Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash.; Doug Collins, Ga.; Susan Brooks, Ind.; Mimi Walters, Calif.; Paul Mitchell, Mich.

​​​​​​​Jordan, an outspoken critic of Silicon Valley’s alleged anti-conservative bias, told us Wednesday there are a lot of remaining issues to discuss with Pichai and Dorsey. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told us Google needs to “take a look at the sequence of events that’s necessary to happen if they don’t open things up and allow for a political balance, an ideological balance.”