Jamie Raskin Condemns ‘Unlawful Firing’ Of Democratic FTC Commissioners, Loss Of ‘Check On Big Tech’

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During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) spoke of his disapproval for the recent removals of two democratic Federal Trade Commission Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter.  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The gentleman yields back. I ask unanimous consent to enter the record

00:06the letter from Gary Shapiro and Kinsey Fabrizzo of CTA dated April 2nd, 2025.

00:14Also the statement of Jennifer Huddleston from Cato dated April 2nd, 2025 and the letter from

00:23Graham Dufault of the App Association dated April 2nd, 2025 without objection.

00:34And Mr. Chairman?

00:34This gentleman from Illinois has a UC request.

00:38Yes, thank you, Chairman. I request unanimous consent to add to the record a tech policy press

00:45article entitled Doge Plan to Push AI Across the U.S. Federal Government is Wildly Dangerous.

00:52Without objection, the ranking member of the full committee is now recognized for five minutes.

01:00Thank you kindly, Mr. Chairman, and thanks to our witnesses today. It's hard to think of an

01:06antitrust matter more pressing than concentration in the AI market. The dominance of a handful of

01:12AI companies presents a long-term problem for our national security, our democracy, our privacy,

01:19and basic fairness in the marketplace. But President Trump has plunged our government

01:25into chaos and disabled the federal agencies that we depend on to address such problems.

01:31It will be difficult to effectively respond to dangerous market concentration in the

01:37assembly of all human knowledge if we have governmental power that is dangerously

01:42concentrated itself in the president to the exclusion of Congress as the lawmaking branch

01:47and the judiciary as the protector of constitutional rights and values.

01:51Over a century ago, Congress established the Federal Trade Commission. It was created as

01:55an independent agency to enforce antitrust and consumer protection laws outside of the

02:01controlling pressure and power agendas of any single president or party. For more than a

02:06century, the FTC has protected Americans against scams, fraud, and other unfair and deceptive

02:12practices. It's also promoted and protected competition in the marketplace, which benefits

02:17consumers, workers, and small businesses, driving innovation and business without monopoly.

02:23Congress designed the FTC to be led by five commissioners across party lines who serve

02:29seven-year terms, are subject to Senate confirmation, and can only be fired for a

02:33cause. Congress structured this independence to ensure that the FTC would serve the nonpartisan

02:39interests of the American people and be insulated from partisan political control.

02:44Over 90 years ago, the independence of these commissioners was tested and the Supreme Court

02:49unanimously reaffirmed that the president cannot unilaterally fire an independent FTC

02:55commissioner without cause. Unitary executive power violated the careful federal design and

03:01infringed Congress's lawmaking power to establish the FTC as an effective and balanced instrument

03:08for the public good. Yet President Trump chose to violate federal law and defy the court's

03:13long-standing precedent by attempting to fire without cause the two Democratic members of the

03:19FTC. He did so to end the nonpartisan independence of the FTC and to make sure it responds to his

03:27momentary political demands above the national public interest as contemplated by Congress.

03:34Accordingly, the commissioners have brought suit to reverse their unlawful firing and to,

03:38as Commissioner Slaughter stated, make sure that the work of the commission is done

03:43without fear of favor and, more specifically, that we can take on the biggest companies in

03:47America without fear of getting fired for failure to do a favor to the president's friends or donors

03:53or corporate allies. The strongest federal rules on AI were established by President Biden in a

03:592023 EO. The Trump administration reversed that executive order, which laid down the guardrails

04:04for the AI industry. Not content with this rollback, the president has now hobbled and

04:10undermined the lead cop on the AI beat, the FTC, which has for years been at the forefront

04:15of holding big tech, including AI, to account. It's hard to debate the proper scope of regulation

04:22in this political space when Donald Trump has reportedly granted Elon Musk unlimited access

04:28to our most private and sensitive records, data that's undoubtedly invaluable to ex-AI,

04:34his AI company. Today, none of us here know whether Musk is using our data, classified

04:40information, and other sensitive data from databases across government to train his company's

04:46AI models and gain an unfair advantage over competitors and against citizens. Musk has refused

04:52to answer our many requests on this topic, and now he's crippled the agency charged with

04:57investigating these very tech abuses. Even if we came together and found agreement on regulatory

05:03reforms and safeguards for AI development, we still now lack an expert independent agency

05:10to enforce our decisions. The president and Trump, uh, the president and Musk are ushering

05:18in a new regime in which monarchical power, cronyism, corruption, and sycophancy rule.

05:24He's using his office to enrich himself, his friends, and his donors, all at the expense

05:28of the people. The attempted firing of two FTC commissioners and his subsequent removal of any

05:34FTC resource that might serve as a check on big tech illustrate how the president is dismantling

05:40the machinery of government to serve his own ends. Our constitutional order is under attack

05:47to concentrate all political power in the president. It's the political equivalent

05:52of what we're trying to prevent in the economic sphere. I hope that our witnesses can give us

05:57their best, uh, insight as to how to deal with this problem, but we are facing a structural

06:03crisis now in our government. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

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