Steve Womack Tears Into FTC Chair Lina Khan For 'Blocking Countless Mergers'

7 months ago

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) questioned FTC Chair Lina Khan about robocalls, and cast doubt on the agency's anti-trust stance.

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Transcript

00:00Now recognize Mr. Womack for any questions he may have. Thank you, Mr.

00:03Chairman, and welcome, Chair Kahn, to the committee. I know my friend, Cindy Hoyer,

00:09is going to talk a little bit more about CARS, the CARS rule. We'll dig into

00:14that, too, a little bit. And in your opening comments, you talked about the

00:19work that you've done on robocalls, on unwanted telephone traffic coming into

00:25the homes of everyday Americans. And congratulations on that, but you haven't

00:32fixed the problem, right? That's right. We have seen a significant drop in

00:39complaints, but obviously people, you know, robocalls are still a scourge.

00:42Is it possible that the reason you don't have as many complaints is people

00:46have just given up? It's possible. I mean, we have... I think it's probable, because I

00:53used to hear a lot from people, and in conversations, I still get comments.

00:57They're still getting this. So I would, on one hand, I would congratulate you for

01:03bringing the enforcement actions that you've brought on people performing this

01:08unwanted service into America's homes, but the problem is not fixed. And

01:14we still get a lot of concerns about that. So I'd be careful not to make

01:20that your calling card. You're asking for a 25% increase over the

01:25enacted 24 level, from 425 and change to 535, in just a few seconds, because I got

01:32a limited amount of time. What's the justification there? So the

01:39justification is that there are unfunded pay increases. There are higher costs we

01:44face because of inflation unrelated to pay. And then we also have to make

01:49critical investments. 25%? We also have to make critical investments in some of our

01:54tech upgrades. Sometimes, you know, we now have to analyze huge amounts of data.

01:59Right now, we don't always have the capacity to analyze that data in-house.

02:03We also need to do modernization of our complaint database, and so all of those

02:08costs are included. Again, 70% of the FTC's budget is our people, and so those

02:14pay increases, especially when they're not funded, do hit pretty hard. Fair enough.

02:22We'll have a lot more debate about the size of that increase. To another

02:31line of questioning, before you were confirmed in 21, your background was in

02:36academia, where you've argued in support of dramatically expanding the FTC's

02:42regulatory and enforcement powers. From being the only regulator to challenge a

02:46merger of two luxury fashion firms, Tapestry and Capri, to blocking aluminum's

02:51acquisition of cancer startup, Grail, it's clear, clear to us, that you continue to

02:56hold this view by blocking countless mergers. Are there any mergers that are

03:02good for the economy, in your view? So 98% of all mergers go through without even a

03:09second question being asked by the government. That's because you don't have

03:13enough staff to come after them, right? Is that the problem? Look, there are a whole

03:18bunch of mergers that pose legal issues, and we have an obligation to protect the

03:23American people from illegal consolidation. That's the job Congress

03:26has given us, and we do that job without fear or favor. One of the transactions

03:31you mentioned, the Illumina-Grail merger, that was unanimously voted out before I

03:35arrived. The Commission unanimously issued an opinion believing that deal

03:40was illegal, and we got a resounding win in the Fifth Circuit last year, saying

03:45that the FTC was right. This was an anti-competitive deal. So I think we're

03:49getting it right. Well, it's often been said that a broken clock is right twice

03:54a day, and and so I'm I'm not going to dispute the fact that there are things

03:58that the FTC is doing that that strike the right balance. I think the challenge

04:03for us is where where is there too much government? I mean, you talked about that

04:12you gave the example on cars, nitrogen-filled tires versus regular air

04:16tires. Do we need the government to tell us that? Is that what the purpose of

04:22government is? I struggle with with too much government. As a matter of fact,

04:28academia has reported that because of your background and that you've openly

04:33admitted, in someone's words, preferring to err on the side of overly aggressive

04:39enforcement rather than too passive enforcement. Do you do you admit to that?

04:46Well, Congressman, I do think that over the last 40 years we've seen huge

04:50amounts of consolidation that has resulted in a more centralized economy.

04:55Right? I mean, one of the contributors of America's economic success has been open

05:00competitive markets and free enterprise, and if we allow too much

05:04centralization, that's gonna set us back. And so I believe, and Congress has

05:09charged the FTC with vigorously enforcing the antitrust laws to ensure

05:14we have free enterprise and fair competition, and and that's what we do.

05:18Well, we'll we'll hold some of these questions for a little bit later, but

05:24suffice it to say the challenge for the members of this committee, given the

05:29pressure on the discretionary budget of the U.S. government, is to how much of

05:34this government can we actually afford, and where is there too much government?

05:41And that debate, I think, is still alive and well. I yield back.

05:49Thank you, Mr. Womack. We will now recognize Mr. Molnar.

Steve Womack Tears Into FTC Chair Lina Khan For 'Blocking Countless Mergers'

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