Sanford Bishop Asks FTC Chair About Granting Temporary Employees ‘Unprecedented Access’ To Agency Data

Forbes Breaking News

During Thursday’s House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) questioned Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson about data access.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Congressman.

00:02Thank you very much, sir.

00:03The chair now recognizes the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Bishop, for any questions he may have.

00:11Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:14Chairman Ferguson, it's been reported in the news that FTC is working with Doge to make cuts to your agency.

00:22Can you tell us what the role of Doge is at FTC and what data have they accessed and what data have they copied?

00:31And can you assure the public that Doge and its affiliates are not accessing confidential business data

00:38or sharing the data with potential competitors of the businesses, not limited to but including the Musk network of businesses?

00:47Congress first established the FTC as an independent agency.

00:51Tell us how this is still the case in the White House and private individuals with temporary government positions

00:59have such unprecedented access and control over the agency's operations.

01:04I can definitely tell you that no FTC employee, including those that are detailed over from United States Doge Services,

01:11are given access to anything they don't have a need for.

01:15The two employees that originated from USDS that have been onboarded as full-time employees of the commission

01:21received the same ethics vetting, background check, and data security training that every other employee, including me, has received.

01:29Their access is governed by the exact same rules that governs the access of every other employee, including me,

01:34which is that no one gets access to any particular part of our IT infrastructure without having a need to,

01:39demonstrated need to access it.

01:41We have rigidly enforced those rules for every employee at the FTC.

01:45Okay, so you actually, your agency enforces those rules?

01:49Absolutely.

01:50There is a statute forbidding the disclosure of confidential commission information.

01:55It makes it a misdemeanor to do so.

01:57We take that extremely seriously, both because Congress has said it's a misdemeanor to do so,

02:02but also because our ability to work with companies in investigations depends on them knowing we will not leak out information.

02:09We had a real leak problem in the previous administration that caused tremendous embarrassment to the commission.

02:14The commission under President Trump has taken this issue incredibly seriously for all employees, including the ones from USDS.

02:20So your FTC people are not worried at all about intimidation from the administration or from Doge

02:26if they fail to comply or if they question a need that is suggested that they may not believe this necessarily so?

02:35No, we have had, USDS employees that have been on board at the FTC have been incredibly helpful.

02:42They helped us find contracts that allowed us, that we could de-scope or eliminate while still fulfilling our mission to the American people.

02:49We have had a great working relationship with the USDS folks, and I unequivocally support the President's agenda.

02:54Are there any instances where they've asked for information and been denied it?

02:58Not to my knowledge, no.

02:59I didn't think so.

03:03I didn't think so.

Category

Transcript

Recommended