The Chair of the FTC Lina Kahn said she aims to challenge more corporate mergers and monopolistic practices, as well as adopt regulations to head off what she sees as unfair business tactics, reported The Wall Street Journal.
According to the WSJ those plans have sparked policy disagreements with Republican commissioners and produced discontent among career officials who have felt like an afterthought in her agenda. They say staffers, including some at senior levels of the agency, have felt excluded from deliberations and believe their views aren’t valued.
Last week this discontentment was made public when one of the FTC’s two Republican commissioners, Christine Wilson, gave a speech at an American Bar Association conference in which she said the commission’s current leadership “has sidelined and disdained our staff.”
“Leadership routinely fails to solicit the advice of our experienced staff,” Ms. Wilson said, adding that the current environment had prompted some staffers to leave, reported the WSJ.
Following Ms. Wilson’s speech, Ms. Khan sent out a commission-wide internal memo to address “commentary about the environment at the agency,” saying she cared deeply about the FTC’s mission and the staff.
“I know that there are still many relationships and bridges to build, and I am eager to do so as we chart this path forward together,” she wrote.
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