On December 10, 2024, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced he would appoint current Commissioner Andrew Ferguson to lead the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and nominate Mark Meador to fill the seat of outgoing Chair Lina Khan.
Once these seats are filled, Commissioners Ferguson and Meador, along with current Commissioner Melissa Holyoak, will then form the Republican majority leading the FTC.
Although a change in direction at the FTC had been presumed after the presidential election, any doubts were put to rest with the December 13, 2024, Dissenting Statement of Commissioner Ferguson to the FTC’s recently released Fall 2024 Regulatory Plan and Regulatory Agenda. Commissioner Ferguson’s Dissenting Statement reads simply:
It is senseless for the Biden-Harris FTC to announce, on its way out the door, its plans for the future. It has no future. The American people have spoken loudly and clearly at the ballot box, and have rejected the heavy regulatory burden laid on them these last four years. The [FTC] under President Trump will focus primarily on our traditional role as a cop on the beat. We will vigorously and faithfully enforce the laws that Congress has passed, rather than writing them. Because this plan and agenda no longer accurately characterizes the [FTC’s] ambitions and goals for the future, I dissent.
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