Consumer Protection and Recovery Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NADLER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Consumer Protection and Recovery Act.

This legislation is essential to promoting the Federal Trade Commission's mission to enforce antitrust law and to protect consumers. For decades, the commission has secured monetary relief for victims of unfair, deceptive, and anticompetitive conduct, such as pharmaceutical companies blocking access to lower-cost drugs.

In a recent example, the FTC returned nearly $60 million to patients suffering from opioid addiction. But a few months ago, the Supreme Court severely weakened one of the FTC's most vital tools for protecting consumers and deterring bad conduct by ruling that the FTC could not seek monetary relief under one of the key statutes that it enforces. This legislation would reverse the Court's decision and would restore one of the Commission's critical tools for fighting monopolists and protecting consumers.

Mr. Speaker, I commend the bill's sponsor, Mr. Cardenas, and I thank Chairman Pallone and Chairwoman Schakowsky for their leadership to address this urgent problem, and I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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