Congressman Pocan Statement at Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Request Hearing for the Federal Trade Commission

Congressman Mark Pocan (D-WI), a member of the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the Subcommittee's hearing on the Fiscal Year 2024 Request Request for the Federal Trade Commission:

Thank you, Chairman Womack.

I would like to welcome Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission to today's hearing. I look forward to discussing what the FTC has accomplished and the direction it is going, as well as how the fiscal year 2024 budget request will provide the resources they need.

The FTC protects consumers across vast swathes of our economy. They set rules and expectations for corporate behavior, ensure Americans have the information they need to make prudent decisions, and investigate allegations of wrongdoing.

The FTC assesses mergers and acquisitions and other competition issues for much of the U.S. economy, including technology, health care, energy, and pharmaceuticals. It also investigates unfair and deceptive practices related to privacy, cybersecurity, credit reporting, misleading advertising, and numerous other areas.

The FTC has some of the brightest and hardest working employees in government, but these broad responsibilities mean that the agencies must make hard decisions about what investigations to pursue. We have heard reports that when you go to court, FTC is often out staffed dramatically by corporations in high-profile litigation.

I appreciate that you have requested substantial funding increases in fiscal year 2024 to support the FTC's enforcement, rulemaking, and research priorities.

The FTC is requesting a significant funding increase of $160 million, or 37 percent above the FY23 enacted level, for a total of $590 million. This funding would go toward additional staffing in the areas of competition and consumer protection, as well as support IT needs and expert witness testimony. This increase in resources will further empower the FTC to improve fairness in the marketplace and lower costs for American taxpayers.

Additionally, because of a continuing surge in merger and acquisition activity as well as changes to the FTC's fee structure, we anticipate the FTC will also increase its revenue by collecting more filing fees, which will offset a portion of the requested funding increase. Needless to say, the FTC is one of only a handful of Agencies whose own fee structure helps to offset taxpayer funding.

We look forward to discussing how the FTC will use these funds effectively to support its consumer protection and competition work.

Before I yield back, I would like to note that, this week, my colleagues from the other side of the aisle have advanced a debt ceiling bill that would impose drastic cuts to federal agencies.

For the FSGG bill, that means cuts to agencies like the FTC, which protects Americans from fraudsters and scammers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which keeps unsafe products off the market, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which protects the financial markets for investors, and the IRS, which just received a much-needed increase in funding for enforcement efforts to crack down on wealthy tax cheats.

I hope that my colleagues reject these ill-advised cuts and we can work together to protect Americans from those who seek to commit fraud and cheat the system.

Chair Khan, I look forward to your statement and our discussion this morning.

Thank you, Mr. Womack, I yield the balance of my time.