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FTC Chair Defends Tenure as Lawmakers Battle Over Consumer Agency's Impact 22

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
Lina Khan, the progressive head of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), faced tough questions on Thursday from a Republican-led House committee about court fights over multi-billion dollar mergers the agency opposed and lost. From a report: Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican from California, asked Khan about the cases that the agency had lost. "We fight hard when we believe there was a law violation, and unfortunately things don't always go our way," responded Khan. "Are you bringing cases you expect to lose?" Kiley asked later. "Absolutely not," Khan said. "Okay well your track record seems to suggest otherwise," he answered.

Representative Darrell Issa, a Republican, sternly disagreed with the Khan FTC's decision to press on with a fight against Illumina's purchase of Grail after an FTC internal judge disagreed with FTC commissioners. That challenge was initially brought under the Trump administration and is currently before an appeals court. The agency also lost a fight to stop Facebook parent Meta Platforms from buying VR content maker Within Unlimited. Democrats on the committee sought to defend Khan, occasionally joined by Republicans on the panel including Rep. Ken Buck. The White House also put out a statement backing Khan. "Chair Khan has delivered results for families, consumers, workers, small businesses, and entrepreneurs," said White House Press Secretary Michael Kikukawa, citing efforts including the agency's bid to ban non-compete agreements and mergers that would harm consumers.
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FTC Chair Defends Tenure as Lawmakers Battle Over Consumer Agency's Impact More

FTC Chair Defends Tenure as Lawmakers Battle Over Consumer Agency's Impact

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  • Look at them pretending to give a shit when they aren't in power.....

    • I doubt they're pretending. The FTC has acted to protect individuals and reduced corporate profits, that's the sort of thing that they care about.

    • Look at them pretending to give a shit when they aren't in power.....

      I'm guessing these Congresspeople have investments that would be helped by the actions being blocked/challenged. /cynical

  • Mission Accomplished (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Miles_O'Toole ( 5152533 ) on Thursday July 13, 2023 @02:28PM (#63683373)

    Republicans and so-called "centrist" Democrats have fought for years to de-fang every government agency that could conceivably fight for the public interest against corporate America.

    Well, they've won. Now you get pricks like Kiley and Issa taking a victory lap. The next step, of course, will be to suggest such agencies shouldn't exist anyway, since they aren't winning very often.

    The same tactic, by the way, has been used with success against the IRA and public education.

    • The same tactic, by the way, has been used with success against the IRA and public education.

      To be fair to those in Congress, a well-funded/operating IRS would (probably) hurt rich people (like them) and a well-educated electorate is harder to manipulate/fool (by them). /s

  • Obligatory... (Score:4, Funny)

    by kge ( 457708 ) on Thursday July 13, 2023 @02:30PM (#63683389)

    Khaaaaaaaan!!!!

  • Hold on! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Thursday July 13, 2023 @03:28PM (#63683561)
    Don't you Republicans have Chinese spy whistleblowers, Jewish space lasers, and The UFO crisis and Hunter Biden's penis you have to look at? Get to your proper interests Republicans - not silly FTC stuff. And hose dominion voting machines and illegal immigrant Caravans and Chavez's ghost who created the Dominion voting machines, and Mike Lindell''s pillow cancelling need investigated.

    And shouldn't Gym, Jordan get a post-emptive pocket pardon From Trump? What would Jeebuz do?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Jeebuz would tell them to stop acting like dicks and stop the "culture" wars against people they don't like.

      • Jeebuz would tell them to stop acting like dicks and stop the "culture" wars against people they don't like.

        I try. It is rather amusing that those who would speak of "cancel culture" and "woke" are the biggest practitioners of it.

      • Actually, you're referring to Jesus.

        Jeebuz hails from the year 2505, and is Upgrayedd's new found right hand. So if anything, he'd tell them to keep acting like dicks. /s

        • Actually, you're referring to Jesus. Jeebuz hails from the year 2505, and is Upgrayedd's new found right hand. So if anything, he'd tell them to keep acting like dicks. /s

          I wonder if Homer Simpson was referring to that - one time he was praying to Jeebuz.

  • If the FTC (and Biden) was serious about anti-trust, they would be going after the Kroger-Albertsons merger which is far worse for consumers than any of the mergers the FTC has actually gone after.

  • They have no teeth to bite into anything, but it wasn't always like that. What or who changed that?

  • Khan is an activist whose avowed purpose is to harass companies into bending to her will when the law is not on her side. Like many recent Democratic initiatives, they work to go around Congress -- the people who should be fixing anti-trust law -- and instead want to impose their will "by any means necessary." This may well have the opposite of the intended effect, if scotus decides to defang the FTC due to her bad behavior, as it has done with EPA and SEC and OSHA.

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