President-elect Donald Trump is picking Andrew Ferguson as Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair, replacing Lina Khan.
He is also selecting antitrust lawyer Mark Meador as a commissioner for the agency.
“At the FTC, we will end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech,” said Ferguson in a statement on X. “We will make sure that America is the world’s technological leader and the best place for innovators to bring new ideas to life.”
Ferguson will not need Senate confirmation to be named as chair. He likely represents a more corporate-friendly head of the agency.
It’s less clear how Ferguson will approach healthcare. Current commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter wrote a letter to Ferguson asking him to focus on the cost of healthcare and fraud rather than pick ideological fights on trans rights.
In a document presented to Trump outlining why he should be named the new chair, Ferguson said he would be more receptive to mergers than Khan and that he‘d “repeal burdensome regulations,” reported Punchbowl. He said the FTC needs to stop “legally dubious” consumer protection cases, end efforts to become an “AI regulator” and “prosecute collusion” on diversity, equity and inclusion.
One of the items on his agenda is to “investigate the doctors, therapists, hospitals and others” who advocate for gender-affirming care, and another is to end affirmative action policies.
Nonprofit advocacy group Fight for the Future said the appointment gives the organization concern over the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which they saw allows policymakers to take down social media content deemed harmful.
“This coalition has warned Congress of exactly this scenario: what a Trump FTC could do with the powers over online speech that KOSA would give the agency, and how in the wrong hands, content vital to LGBTQ communities, abortion seekers and other marginalized groups would be on the chopping block,” said the group in a news release.
Republicans in Congress talk openly of defunding Planned Parenthood and eliminating tax incentives of targeted nonprofits.
If Ferguson chooses to examine the business practices of pharmacy benefit managers, he will find commonality with Democrats and Republicans throughout government.
Today, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, introduced legislation that would require insurance companies to sell their PBM businesses within three years, reported The Wall Street Journal. The bill could foreshadow how a growing contingent of lawmakers view PBMs and where legislation is headed in the next Congress.
Lina Khan is growing in notoriety, a rare achievement as FTC chair, on both sides of the aisle. The commission under her leadership fought to limit potentially harmful consolidation and pushed to eliminate junk fees and noncompetes nationwide, among other accomplishments. Ferguson voted against banning noncompetes, and the rule has faced legal scrutiny.
Ferguson was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as an FTC commissioner in July 2023. He was confirmed in March, and his term expires in September 2030.
Meador is a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, creator of Project 2025. He is also a partner at Kressin Meador Powers and was deputy chief counsel for antitrust and competition policy for the U.S. Senate. Meador was an attorney for the bureau of competition for the FTC from 2011 to 2016.