Federal Trade Commission nominee Lina M. Khan speaks before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding the nomination of former Senator Bill Nelson on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 21, 2021 ) testified at the hearing to serve as NASA administrator.
Graeme Jennings | Reuters
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is investigating President Joe Biden’s new Task Force on Corporate Pricing Practices, claiming it could be used as a “political tool,” according to a letter obtained by CNBC
In a letter Tuesday, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee asked the FTC chairman to Lina Khan Turn over all FTC records related to establishing the Unfair and Unlawful Pricing Strike Force, which Biden launched in March to address concerns related to companies’ pricing practices.
“The timing of the ‘Strike Force’ announcement in an election year makes it likely that political motivations rather than the interests of American consumers are driving this action,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in the letter. . “Using the FTC as a tool for a political witch hunt against American businesses would be an egregious abuse of the agency’s power.”
The strike force is jointly led by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, which have been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda over the past few years.
Khan and Justice Department antitrust chief Jonathan Kantor have more than 50 Proposed deals in sectors including technology, energy and groceries include gains and losses since taking office in 2021.
In the letter, Cuomo also requested all documents related to the FTC’s 2021 investigation into alleged violations. Gasoline Pricingand proposed mergers between giant grocers Kroger and Albertsons, among others.
“The Federal Trade Commission — which is supposed to be an independent agency — has a history of enforcing President Biden’s partisan orders,” Cuomo said in the letter.
The Federal Trade Commission declined to comment.
The House panel’s investigation is the latest in a series of investigations into the FTC and Khan, who has become a major target of Republicans during a period of heightened antitrust enforcement under her leadership.
Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign hinges in part on his ability to convince voters that his economic agenda is good for their wallets. Even as the economy teeters on an unsteady recovery since the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, inflation remains stubbornly high and the cost of daily living for consumers has not fully eased.
Biden, in turn, often accuses big companies of keeping prices artificially high even as pandemic-era supply chain disruptions heal and producer costs cool.
In his letter, Cuomo claimed that “this pattern” of blaming corporate pricing practices for inflation indicates that the new FTC-DoJ strike force will be used as a political tool.
But Biden’s logic that businesses, not his economic agenda, are to blame for high prices may win over voters. A March survey found that respondents blamed recent price increases more on “big corporations taking advantage of inflation” than on Democratic policies.
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