Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, made the following remarks today at the nominations hearing for Rebecca Blank, nominated to be Deputy Secretary at the Department of Commerce, and two nominees for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Maureen Ohlhausen and Chairman Jon Leibowitz:

“Thank you Mr. Chairman for holding this hearing and I am pleased that Dr. Blank is coming back before the committee for the position of Deputy Secretary at the Department of Commerce. We just confirmed Secretary Bryson and it is important we get his Deputy in place as soon as possible so they can have the full leadership team.

            “Dr. Blank is in a unique position, having served almost a year as acting Deputy Secretary and Acting Secretary for the two months while the confirmation of Secretary Bryson was pending.

            “I am also pleased to see our two nominees for the Federal Trade Commission, Maureen Ohlhausen and Chairman Leibowitz. The FTC’s mission is a critical one as we all know and its expansive jurisdiction covers both consumer protection and anti-trust issues in a broad range of industries.

            “Because the FTC covers such a broad umbrella of issues, I’ll be interested to hear the nominees’ views on industry regulations through agency rulemaking. While there is a place for carefully considered regulation, we must be careful not to regulate for the sake of regulating and before any new directives are issued, they should be carefully considered against all alternatives to ensure a balanced and fair approach that will not stifle innovation or competition, nor impede job growth.

            “This is particularly important in the online world. As pervasive as the internet now is, online business models and services and self-regulatory programs are still fairly new. They are evolving every day. Any rules in this space, whether regulatory or legislative, would have to be informed by this dynamic environment. So, regulating before the markets develop could be harmful.

            “I do have some other concerns regarding recent and upcoming actions by the Commission which I hope we can clarify and that would include the interagency working group on food marketing, which is finalizing its recommendations and will soon send them to Congress. I am unclear on the way in which the working group arrived at its recommendations, and I would like to talk to you, Chairman Leibowitz, about that. And Mr. Leibowitz, has also been a staunch supporter for prohibiting so-called reverse payments settlements for pharmaceuticals which would be on my agenda to ask of him, as well as Ms. Ohlhausen.

            “So, I do think we need to proceed with the hearing and I appreciate very much your calling it.”