Updated: March 19, 1:35 p.m.
The two remaining Democratic commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have been fired, they announced on social media Tuesday.
Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter were both removed from the committee. The two members released separate statements on X, with Bedoya saying President Donald Trump wants the agency to be a “lapdog for his golfing buddies.”
“Together with Chair Lina Khan and Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, I spent my time at the FTC fighting for small town grocers and pharmacists and for people in Indian country going hungry because food was too expensive,” said Bedoya. “Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or someone who’s so disgusted with Washington you can barely watch the news, the FTC has worked for you.”
Bedoya added he will be testifying in front of the Colorado Joint House and Senate Judiciary committees tomorrow and encouraged onlookers to “fight back.”
“I woke up this morning, as I have every day for nearly the last seven years, eager to get to work on behalf of the American people to make the economy more honest and fair,” said Slaughter in comments shared by former FTC Director of the Office of Public Affairs Douglas Farrar. “But today the President illegally fired me from my position as a FTC Commissioner, violating the plain language of a statute and clear Supreme Court precedent.
“Removing opposition voices may not change what the Trump majority can do, but it does change whether they will have accountability when they do it,” she added. “The administration clearly fears the accountability that opposition voices would provide if the President orders Chairman [Andrew] Ferguson to treat the most powerful corporations and their executives—like those that flanked the President at his inauguration—with kid gloves.”
Jonathan Kanter, former assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden, said the firings have "no valid justification, legal or otherwise" in a post on LinkedIn.
The FTC has an active role within the healthcare industry, challenging merger deals it deems anticompetitive and enforcing consumer protections, including those related to false advertising and privacy.
It’s likely the firings will face swift legal action, as did other attempts by the Trump administration to take unprecedented control of traditionally independent agencies.
"The FTC is now the latest agency to see its Democratic commissioners fired without cause, joining (among others) the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and the National Labor Relations Board—part of a sweeping attack on the federal agencies that protect U.S. workers, voters, and consumers," said a spokesperson with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a left-leaning nonprofit focused on free speech and privacy, among other issues.
The firings may align with other actions taken by the Trump administration, but the timing could've been a surprise to Ferguson, the chairman. On a live recording of a Bloomberg podcast released March 17, he said he sees advantages to agencies led by both Democratic and Republican members.
"But, you know, there's also, I think, some benefits in certain circumstances to having multi-member agencies with people from both parties," he said. "I mean, look, if you have an agency that is exceeding the law, abusing the companies that it purports to regulate, it's helpful for markets, for courts, for litigants, for government transparency, to have people in the other party pointing that out."
Ferguson later released a statement supporting Trump's decision to fire Bedoya and Slaughter.
"I have no doubts about his constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government," he said in a statement March 19. "The FTC will continue its tireless work to protect consumers, lower prices and police anticompetitive behavior. I wish Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya well, and I thank them for their service.”
Former Chair Lina Khan, also a Democratic member who gained a large following for her role in leading the agency, was replaced as chair by Ferguson. He has expressed interest in better regulating big tech and healthcare monopolies, though he has a different approach to Khan, and has sought to distance the agency somewhat from the adversarial positions it took in recent years against private equity. Antitrust lawyer Mark Meador was also nominated to the FTC Jan. 20.
While tech may be under the microscope in some respects, the FTC removed blogs and guidance—published during Biden's term—from the agency's website on how major tech corporations skirt consumer protection laws and can better comply with the law, reported Wired today.
A letter from Bedoya and Slaughter in December encouraged Ferguson to prioritize issues that lower the cost of living and reduce fraud, two stated aims Trump made on the campaign trail.
One bipartisan priority of the FTC is to take on pharmacy benefit managers, another issue Trump has supported in the past. Yesterday, the FTC—with support from all four of its acting commissioners—urged Indiana regulators to block a hospital merger application the agency deemed a threat to competition in the state.
The White House did not provide Fierce Healthcare with a statement.