Senator spoke on Senate floor following Leader Schumer’s motion to move Alvaro Bedoya’s nomination forward 

Leader Schumer:  “I hope anyone who cares about inflation and rising prices and collusion and all kinds of manipulation of those prices…. should be voting for the motion to discharge the nomination. Once again, the senator from Washington has led the way on this issue. I salute her.” 

Vote on motion now set for Wednesday, March 30

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation spoke on the Senate floor tonight, urging her colleagues to support Leader Schumer’s motion to bring Alvaro Bedoya’s nomination to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) out of the Senate Commerce Committee and onto the Senate calendar, allowing a confirmation vote to be scheduled. Leader Schumer also announced the Senate would vote on the motion tomorrow morning.

“The FTC is the security guard for America's consumers,” Sen. Cantwell said. “The FTC needs to be able to protect all Americans, and to accomplish that we need to have a Commission that is not deadlocked, but has somebody like Mr. Bedoya who can help us move ahead on these issues.”

“I want to thank the senator for her leadership on this issue,” leader Schumer said.  “We all know we've seen prices go way up, and we also all suspect a lot is due to different gouging and manipulations. The FTC is about the best agency to look for this. But without Mr. Bedoya, the chair and members are handicapped in moving that forward. This is a really important motion to discharge. I hope anyone who cares about inflation and rising prices and collusion and all kinds of manipulation of those prices to prevent those from coming back down should be voting for the motion to discharge the nomination. Once again, the senator from Washington has led the way on this issue. I salute her.”

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Because Mr. Bedoya’s vote in the Commerce Committee tied 14-14, in accordance with S. Res. 27, it requires a motion to discharge from the Majority Leader in order to be placed on the Senate calendar.