Hearing of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee - Opening Statement of Sen. Thune, Hearing on Nominations

Hearing

Today we welcome four nominees to testify before the Committee as we consider their nominations to serve as commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Joseph Simons has been nominated to serve as a commissioner and FTC Chairman, and his credentials are impressive. Mr. Simons served as the FTC's chief antitrust enforcer, among other positions at the Commission.

Most recently, he served as partner and co-chair of the Antitrust Group at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, and Garrison.

Christine Wilson is an antitrust and consumer protection attorney, who most recently served as Vice President for Regulatory and International Affairs at Delta Airlines. Among her other credentials, she too has worked at the Commission before serving as Chief of Staff to FTC Chairman Tim Muris during the George W. Bush Administration.

Noah Joshua Phillips is a familiar face to many of us, as he currently serves as Chief Counsel to Senator John Cornyn, where he advises on issues including antitrust, consumer privacy, and intellectual property.

Finally, Rohit Chopra. While not an attorney steeped in competition law, Mr. Chopra does have extensive experience in government service and as a consumer advocate.

He currently serves as a Senior Fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, and previously served in senior roles at both the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Department of Education.

Thank you all for being here and welcome to your friends and families who are also joining us.

The FTC is not the largest or most well-known agency under this Committee's jurisdiction, but it is arguably one of the most influential, given its mission to oversee competition and consumer protection across broad swaths of the American economy.

The FTC was founded in 1914 by the direction of Congress, and for more than a century, the Commission has evolved alongside changing market dynamics and consumer preferences.

The agency was borne out of concern at the time that more needed to be done to ensure competitive markets in the United States and to "bust the trusts" that threatened that competition. The Commission's focus soon expanded to include a mandate to enforce against unfair and deceptive acts and practices that threaten consumers.

A common theme bridging the Commission's dual focus on competition and consumer protection is ensuring freedom in the marketplace.

Over its history, and on balance, the FTC has been a strong cop on the beat ensuring that Americans reap the benefits from a functioning economy -- not one dominated by firms with unfairly-concentrated market power. The FTC has also made it possible for Americans to be confident in their transactions, to spend freely, and grow the economy with the knowledge that they are largely protected from the fraudsters and cheats who would do them harm.

But the agency has not been without controversy. In the late 1970s, for example, the agency drew criticism for its consideration of a regulation that would have imposed major restrictions on television advertisements aimed at young children in order to reduce the amount of sugar children eat. This regulatory overreach led the Congress to advance heightened procedural safeguards on the Commission's authority to promulgate rules and led one media outlet to criticize the Commission as the "great national nanny."

The Commission's assertiveness and the breadth of its jurisdiction have earned the FTC other nicknames as well. More recently, the agency has been called "the Federal Technology Commission."

That nickname is actually an appropriate one, given the Commission's increased focus on the American tech sector and the growing influence of Silicon Valley on the American economy. It is my expectation that the FTC will continue its vigilance on this beat.

Privacy and data security, for example, will remain major consumer protection concerns in the coming years, and issues each of these nominees will contend with, once confirmed. The FTC must continue to bring deception cases where it finds material misrepresentations. And it must bring unfairness cases where it finds substantial harm.

Once again, I would like to thank you all for testifying today and for your willingness to fill these critical posts.

I will now turn to Ranking Member Nelson for any opening remarks.

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