The vice president of United States, Kamala Harris, is potentially poised to become the Democratic nominee in the November election.
Here are his views and actions on some key business issues:
BIG TECHNOLOGY
As a candidate for California attorney general, Harris assured potential donors that she is “a capitalist.” She has typically been seen as close to prominent executives and investors in the tech sector, the local industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. She attended the wedding of Sean Parker, an early Facebook executive. Her brother-in-law, Tony West, is Uber’s chief legal officer.
She also accepted donations from Reid Hoffman, a prominent venture capitalist and co-founder of LinkedIn, as well as billionaire John Doerr and venture capitalist Ron Conway. Top tech executives also backed her, including Sheryl Sandberg, then chief operating officer of Facebook, and Marc Benioff, the billionaire CEO of Salesforce.
TECHNOLOGICAL REGULATION
As California attorney general, Harris sued eBay in 2012, alleging anticompetitive hiring practices surrounding a no-hire agreement with Intuit that led to a nearly $4 million deal in 2014.
One of its signature themes was reducing the distribution of pornography on social media, particularly “revenge porn,” a practice that involves posting explicit photos without the person’s consent.
He took credit for a pressure campaign that led Facebook, Alphabet, Google, Microsoft and others to take steps to remove certain explicit images.
“I can’t emphasize enough how technology leaders have stepped up,” Harris said at a news conference at the time.
CLIMATE AND ENERGY
Harris’s positions on climate and energy are similar to those of President Joe Biden. But throughout her career she has made clear that clean energy and environmental justice are priorities.
At the time Biden announced Harris as his running mate in the 2020 race, he emphasized her tough stance against Big Oil when she held key posts in California, pointing to lawsuits she had launched as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and then as the state’s attorney general until January 2017, when she became a senator.
As California attorney general, Harris secured multimillion-dollar settlements with Chevron and BP over alleged pollution violations from underground fuel storage tanks.
She is a supporter of the Biden administration’s strategy to expand offshore wind and other renewable energy through lease auctions and subsidies, a contrast with Trump, a fossil fuel advocate who has criticized offshore wind and other clean energy technologies.
Last year, Harris made her debut at international climate negotiations, announcing a $3 billion commitment to the Green Climate Fund and delivering her first major international climate-focused speech.
As vice president, Harris has also been involved in implementing Environmental Protection Agency policies that address environmental justice issues.
WALL STREET
Harris was known for her tough approach to big banks as California’s attorney general. In 2011, she withdrew from talks between big banks and state attorneys general over a deal that would force lenders to help consumers harmed by foreclosures and predatory lending practices.
Banks subsequently more than quadrupled the money promised to help Californians reduce the amount they owed on their mortgages.
Under Harris, California launched a criminal investigation into Wells Fargo in 2016 over allegations that the bank opened millions of unauthorized customer accounts and credit cards.
Several big names on Wall Street are reportedly backing Harris.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Harris has opposed consolidation in the health care sector out of concern that larger companies would translate into higher prices for consumers.
As California attorney general, he successfully brought several antitrust lawsuits against drug manufacturers, health insurers and hospital systems, and initiated a landmark case against Sutter Health, the 24-hospital system in Northern California, that was eventually brought by his successor.
It launched similar investigations into other large state operators, focusing on out-of-network care costs and mergers at many levels of the system, such as physician groups.
Secured settlements with industry heavyweights, including a $23.5 million settlement with McKesson and a $241 million settlement with Quest Diagnostics in lawsuits over inflated drug prices and illegal markups in California’s Medicaid system.
A longtime supporter of the Affordable Care Act, she also recently pointed to capping insulin prices as a sign of the Biden-Harris administration’s policy to keep health care affordable.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
As vice president, Harris has warned tech executives that they have a “moral” obligation to protect themselves from the potential dangers of AI.
He has backed a Biden executive order on AI that seeks greater consumer protections, highlighting AI-generated scam calls and the repercussions of unlabeled AI-generated content.
Source: Ambito
