Glenn Ivey Brings Up Trump's Shock Firings Of Two FTC Commissioners To FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson

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7 months ago

At last Thursday's House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) questioned FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, sir.

00:03The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Maryland, Mr.

00:06Ivey, for five minutes of questions.

00:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:10Good morning, Mr. Chairman.

00:12I want to thank you for appearing here today.

00:15I appreciate your opening comments.

00:19I look forward to the report you're going to come back with with respect to PBMs.

00:25I think it's a very important issue.

00:27It's also a very complicated issue.

00:29So adding your insight, your agency's insight, will be especially helpful.

00:35I didn't follow the medical device merger issue in detail,

00:40but I was pleased to see that you were open to enjoining a merger.

00:47Your opening comments, I think, reflect the fact that you're trying to call the balls and strikes,

00:52that you're not trying to be ideological about it.

00:55I appreciate that.

00:56Continuing the ongoing litigation with big tech, I thought was interesting as well.

01:02And I believe you, well, the FTC upheld the junk fees, I'll call it, determination,

01:10which I think is important.

01:11I think it's really one of those things that's tremendously helpful to people across the board.

01:15And I do want to join with my colleague from Washington State on the right to repair issue.

01:21I think that's one that is very important.

01:25You know, business-to-business conflicts, that's one thing.

01:28But, you know, a lot of these scenarios, we have individuals.

01:31You talked about a farmer owning a tractor with respect to John Deere,

01:34and I know that's ongoing, but that's the kind of scenario where I think we really need you to step up

01:40and make sure that people are protected so that they can just take care of basic things

01:46and run their business or take care of their appliances.

01:49McDonald's, I'm not a big McFlurry guy, but, you know, if they get a break along the way, that's fine.

01:55Click to cancel is another one that I think could really be helpful to a lot of people across the board.

02:01I know every time I try and cancel something that frequently one of my kids signed up for,

02:07it takes forever to do it.

02:09You know, you can sign up in a minute, but getting out of it can take half of a lifetime.

02:14So I appreciate anything you can do on that front as well.

02:18I do want to say this.

02:20With respect to the non-compete issue, I think that, and you opened by talking about the importance of workers

02:31and how they're the backbone of the economy and you want to take a pro-worker approach.

02:37The non-compete piece, in my experience when I was practicing,

02:43corporation to corporation, no poaching, that kind of stuff, I get it.

02:46But there's a lot of times where you have workers, individuals who really don't have negotiating capability

02:53with respect to larger corporations, and they want to try and move to do another job

03:00or, you know, find other types of employment, might have some situation where, you know, beyond their control.

03:07And these clauses can really get in the way and hamstring them.

03:10And I think I took a look at your dissent on that issue, and I appreciate your views on it.

03:18I know a lot of that's procedural, and I don't mean to belittle that,

03:24but this is a very important restriction on what regular people can do from an employment standpoint.

03:31And I hope that you'll be able to find a way to address that with respect to people who don't have that kind of power.

03:39They can't hire the big lobbyists, as you mentioned.

03:42And I want to close with this, and I know this is ongoing litigation as well.

03:47The termination of Commissioner Slaughter and Bedoya, as you know, caught a lot of people's attention.

03:54That would include me.

03:56And I know it's still kind of in court, just getting underway.

04:01But one of the things that concerned me about that was, it didn't appear that there were any grounds for the termination.

04:09Now, I note that you issued a statement with respect to it, I think, on the day they were terminated.

04:17And in the statement you issued, you didn't reference the standard for termination, inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.

04:28And, you know, you supported the termination, but not on statutory grounds, not on legal grounds.

04:38And I think that's pretty significant, especially given your background.

04:43I took a look at your 40-page dissents, Supreme Court clerk.

04:47You mentioned being from a state school.

04:49You didn't mention it was UVA, which is a little more than a regular state school.

04:54I appreciate you saying that.

04:56Well, my brother will, too.

04:57But, you know, my larger point, though, is, you know, you didn't hit on the law in the statement that you gave.

05:04You're a defendant in the case, so I know you'll have a chance to explain your position at length.

05:10But I think it's important for us to make sure we understand that independent commissions are supposed to be independent.

05:15The president certainly has the authority to make appointments.

05:19And as you pointed out, he just did.

05:21But there's supposed to be a partisan balance to these.

05:25And those terminations upset that balance from a statutory standpoint.

05:29So you're in the middle of the case.

05:33I want to commend you overall in general for a lot of the positions you've taken.

05:38And I look forward to working with you going forward.

Glenn Ivey Brings Up Trump's Shock Firings Of Two FTC Commissioners To FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson

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