Ranking Member DeLauro Statement at the Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request Hearing for the Federal Trade Commission

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT-03), Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee, delivered the following remarks at the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee's hearing on the fiscal year 2025 budget request for the Federal Trade Commission:

Thank you, Chairman Joyce and Ranking Member Hoyer, for holding this hearing.

And thank you, Chairwoman Khan, for being here today, and thank you for your public service and dedication to protecting American consumers from anti-competitive and unfair business practices across our country, across the economy.

Your agency is critical in combatting the corporate greed that has led the biggest companies to rake in record profits while hardworking Americans are living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to make ends meet, facing exorbitant price increases on the things they buy everyday.

All the while, corporations are taking every opportunity to expand their power through mergers and acquisitions of both competitors and suppliers, tightening their grip on everything from grocery aisles to gas pumps, and solidifying their ability to raise prices on a whim. There is no food shortage in the United States. There is no reason for the exorbitant prices. They do it because they can.

While inflation has cooled from its peak, there is still much to be done to lower the cost of living and make the economy work for more people, and your agency has a critical role to play in that effort.

Just recently, the Federal Trade Commission expanded economic freedom for all Americans by banning noncompete contract clauses nationwide – allowing workers to seek the compensation they are worth on the open market without being handcuffed by employers.

This action alone will put an estimated $524 in the average worker's pocket annually, will lower health care costs by nearly $200 billion over the next decade, and lead to 8,500 new businesses every year.

I also applaud your agency's recent report highlighting the hyper-consolidation of the U.S. infant formula market. I look forward to working with you to address the industry's fragility and build a more diverse and resilient infant formula market.

And, at the beginning of this month, you uncovered disturbing evidence of a Big Oil executive colluding with OPEC to inflate oil prices, leading to pain at the gas pump and at the airport for millions of American families, all for the sake of higher profits.

This right here is exactly what we mean when we talk about corporate greed driving inflation. Big energy companies would rather collude with a cartel of authoritarian states than let the free market truly determine the price at the pump. We do not have a shortage of gasoline and oil.

This shameless profiteering at every opportunity shows why we must do everything we can to support the FTC.

In last year's bill, House Democrats defeated a Republican poison pill rider that would have tied the Commission's hands and allowed for expensive add-on fees at car dealerships. Soaring new and used car prices have been a painful driver of inflation, and the majority's measure would have made it easier for dealerships to bait-and-switch and price gouge consumers with junk fees. I am delighted we defeated this wrongheaded rider, but we have much more to do.

To help ensure fairness across the economy and to protect consumers, the FTC must have the resources it needs to support its staff, infrastructure, and litigation efforts, and President Biden's request for a 26 percent budget increase would enable just that.

The FTC is up against the full might of American corporations and their expansive legal teams, so we must ensure the Commission has the capacity to take on this mission in full and fight back on behalf American consumers.

I thank you again for appearing before the subcommittee and for your public service to our country. I yield back.