© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter testifies on “Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission” before the US Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, Insurance and Data Security in the Russell Senate Office Building
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee voted on Wednesday to send three nominations for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to the full Senate.
Lawmakers voted by voice vote to send to the full Senate the new nomination of Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, along with nominations of two Republicans, Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, the attorneys general of Virginia and Utah, respectively, a spokesman said. congressional assistant. .
THE TAKE
If confirmed by the Senate, as expected, adding the two Republicans will not change the balance of power on the five-member FTC, which also enforces antitrust law. It currently has a Democratic president, Lina Khan, and two Democratic commissioners.
CONTEXT
The agency, which recently sued Amazon.com (NASDAQ:) for allegedly violating antitrust law, is considering mergers such as Kroger’s (NYSE:) plan to buy rival grocery store Albertsons (NYSE:).
At a hearing in mid-September, all three nominees agreed that deceptive use of artificial intelligence should be a priority for the FTC in a show of bipartisanship on the popular issue.
The agreement was surprising given previous partisan battles at the agency. A former Republican FTC commissioner, Christine Wilson, resigned this year and sharply criticized the agency’s leadership.
