WASHINGTON – As the out-of-bounds Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approaches one entire year without Republican representation, Competitiveness Coalition Chair Scott Brown today urged Senate Republicans to confirm FTC Commissioner nominees Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, who enjoy the support of key conservative leaders:
“Since the FTC lost its last Republican commissioner nearly a year ago, Chair Lina Khan has pursued her progressive, heavy-handed regulatory attacks against U.S. innovators without any real check and balance.”
“Senate Republicans have an opportunity to put well-qualified nominees on this once bipartisan, independent commission and it is in conservatives’ best interest to have a check on Chair Khan’s destructive agenda. It is clear that the Biden Administration’s FTC is no longer interested in serving consumers, but the desires of a small group of antitrust activists who want to rewrite the rules of the American economy. I encourage the U.S. Senate to confirm Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak so Republicans will have a voice on this solely-Democratic commission.”
Since its inception in 2022, the Competitiveness Coalition has been sounding the alarms on the FTC’s egregious overreach and questionable actions. Under Khan’s leadership the Commission has come under scrutiny from key congressional committees, who are investigating allegations of abuse of power, the deletion of key documents, and disregard for the rule of law and federal ethics standards.” The “independent” agency has lost two Republican commissioners, senior staff attorneys have departed “at the fastest rate in years” and employee morale has plummeted.
Compounding this myriad of controversies is that the FTC is currently working with foreign regulators to hamstring U.S. companies. This week EU regulators admitted that they were “in close contact with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission,” throughout their investigation into the iRobot-Amazon acquisition, which has been abandoned and resulted in over 300 American jobs needlessly lost.
For more information, please visit competitivenesscoalition.com. Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.
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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.