U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, delivered opening remarks at today’s hearing to consider the following nominations: Rebecca Kelly Slaughter to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Melissa Holyoak to be a Commissioner of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson to be a Commissioner of the FTC and Douglas Dziak to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Watch the hearing live.  

Chair Cantwell’s Opening Remarks as Delivered: VIDEO

Today, the Commerce Committee is having a nomination hearing on the nominations of Honorable Rebecca K. Slaughter of Maryland to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, the nomination of Andrew N. Ferguson of Virginia to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, the nomination Melissa Holyoak of Utah to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission, and Douglas Dziak of Virginia to be a Commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. We have a very busy agenda here to ask these individuals about their nominations, their ideas, and how to enforce very important laws in these various oversight agencies for us.

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We’re joined by two distinguished members, Republican Leader Senator McConnell who will introduce Mr. Ferguson in just a minute, and our former colleague, Senator Lee, who is going to introduce Ms. Holyaok from Utah. I’m going to put a statement in the record for [Leader Senator Schumer’s] support for the renomination of Commissioner Slaughter, unless there is objection.

Commissioner Slaughter was sworn in for her current term [to the FTC] in 2018. We welcome her back for this nomination.

Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Holyoak serve as Solicitors General of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the State of Utah, respectively. We welcome both of them to the committee and I will be asking them about their respective views that they have used in their states and what the mission critical aspects of the FTC are and what they think it should be for the future.

That mission, of course, is to protect consumers from deceptive, unfair and anticompetitive business practices. The FTC’s role has never mattered more.

In 2022, American consumers reported losing over $8.8 billion to fraud, a 30% increase over 2021– a number likely to increase as bad actors exploit the ability to try to turbocharge fraud.

Corporate consolidation and market manipulation has led to increased prices and supply chain issues in products ranging from gasoline to prescription drug prices, two issues that this committee has dealt with. 

And companies have continued to collect troves of sensitive data on consumers without their consent. These practices, I believe, need some attention from this Committee.

Petroleum market transparency continues to be a major drag on families’ budget, at least on the West Coast. In my state, my constituents are paying more than $5 a gallon for gasoline right now. We have an isolated market, but still even that doesn’t call for $5. Many Washingtonians are shelling out more to fill up their cars than in the past.

Last year, the Committee received expert testimony highlighting petroleum market anomalies that have likely driven up billions of dollars on the West Coast.

The legislation that I authored and enacted in 2017 makes oil market manipulation a crime. And I look forward to asking our nominees about this. 

The FTC is investigating fraudulent practices resulting from artificial intelligence, conducting 6(b) studies to learn more about black-box markets, like PBMs, and challenging mergers across industries that will result in anticompetitive effects, and exercising rulemaking authority to examine commercial data surveillance practices.

I look forward to hearing from our nominees on their commitment to supporting robust enforcement efforts.

I hope that Congress can work together to restore the FTC’s ability to seek consumer refunds.

And we must pass a comprehensive privacy law to empower the FTC to safeguard American’s privacy and personal information.

My Republican colleagues are likely to paint a different picture of the FTC today, but here is the reality: the FTC is a federal agency using the powers that we, as Congress, granted it, all with the aim of protecting consumers, workers, small businesses, and our free and fair markets. I welcome our nominees and look forward to their testimony.