House Oversight Report Condemns Khan’s FTC Tenure
FTC Chair Lina Khan has “undermined the FTC’s bipartisan, independent mission through a relentless violation of legal, procedural, historical, and management norms,” the House Oversight Committee said Thursday, releasing a staff report on her tenure. Khan helped spearhead President Joe…
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Biden’s executive order on competition, which ignores the pro-competitive and pro-consumer benefits of acquisitions, the report said. The agency’s decision to withdraw from its merger guidelines has expanded market uncertainty that deters pro-competitive deals, the committee said. Khan's approach is ultimately a “tax” on mergers and acquisitions, the report said. She has led several rulemaking efforts that follow the same pattern, staff said, “bulldozing agency norms, going beyond statutory authority, and regulating based on Biden-Harris ideology, not the facts.” If Khan’s policy and enforcement approach continues, “it will further undermine Americans’ confidence in the FTC’s role in protecting American consumers and the U.S. marketplace,” said Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., in a statement. Her “term expired last month, and she should not be permitted to continue leading an independent agency.” Elon Musk posted Thursday on X: “She will be fired soon.” Progressive Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., have defended Khan's time in office (see 2410160030). The FTC didn’t comment Thursday.