During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) questioned FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson about proposed staff cuts.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Edwards.
00:01The chair now recognizes the ranking member for any questions he may have in five minutes.
00:07Thank you very much, Chair.
00:09Mr. Pocan and I are playing tag team here.
00:13Chair Ferguson, I'm concerned this committee's ability to fund the Department of Engineers in our bill, including the FTC.
00:20But I want to ask you about the staffing levels.
00:23The FTC is already down, as I understand it, 1,221 FTEs.
00:29Is that accurate?
00:31I do believe that is our current number, yes, sir.
00:34And there is a goal to go even lower.
00:37Is that accurate?
00:39We are trying to.
00:40You're still trying to reduce.
00:42We are trying to get our employee levels down to a level we can actually afford, given our current appropriation, yes.
00:48And what level is that?
00:51Because this is largely being driven by attrition rather than layoffs, it's difficult to predict exactly where it's going.
00:58But we are trying to get down around the 1,100 range.
01:01When you say attrition, are you calling the fork in the road and voluntary retirements attrition?
01:10Yeah.
01:10When I inherited the agency, it was very clear that we had more employees than we could possibly afford.
01:17We were using carryover funds to pay our employees.
01:20That is not sustainable.
01:22That's not responsible.
01:23But I wanted to get the agency to healthy employee levels without having to do layoffs.
01:29And so we've offered the Deferred Resignation Program again.
01:33We've offered VERA and VSIP across the entire agency to try to get us to a healthy full-time employee level without having to do layoffs.
01:41Now, has there been a study done on what the appropriate level, when you say healthy level, presumably, and as I said at the beginning, I don't know that I've read a more detailed opening statement.
01:59And as I said, fully noted at the bottom of almost every page.
02:07So you've done a lot of studies.
02:09But is there a study that you could provide for the committee which says what the appropriate level of funding is to meet the very numerous objectives that you outlined in your statement that you want to achieve?
02:25I can't identify a study, but what I can say is that the levels that this committee chooses to fund us, we will maximize the American taxpayer's return on investment.
02:35We consistently send back to the Treasury and to consumers billions of dollars, either in the form of lower prices or recovered unjust enrichment from fraud.
02:45And no matter what this committee funds us at, we will keep doing that, which is just a testament to the fact that the FTC has, in my view, the best civilian staff in the federal government.
02:54So, look, the appropriate healthy funding or level of employees is driven by funding decisions this committee makes.
03:01But whatever funding decisions this committee makes, we will maximize your return on investment.
03:06Well, we made a decision.
03:08We made a decision in fiscal year 24.
03:12We reaffirmed that in fiscal year 25 in the CR.
03:16And now every one of them was offered early out and to be paid through September 30th.
03:23Every one of them, every one of your employees, which whom you have just said are outstanding.
03:27And you said that in your statement, which I appreciate.
03:30I represent, by the way, 77,000 federal employees.
03:34And so I appreciate that statement, which I think is accurate.
03:41Why would we send every one of those people?
03:44Because clearly some of them must be necessary to accomplish the objectives you set forth in your statement.
03:50A notice you can leave and get paid through September 30th.
03:53Because we could not afford to pay all of our employees at the levels Congress had appropriated us.
03:58The previous administration hired radically more people than we could afford to pay.
04:03And we were eating into carryover funds just to cover payroll, which is a deeply irresponsible way to run an agency.
04:09My goal was to get, and remains, to get the agency to healthy employee levels in light of the money that Congress appropriated the agency.
04:16Let me repeat my question.
04:18What is the healthy level?
04:19The healthy level is what we're aiming for, which is in the 11th.
04:22No, no, no, no, no.
04:23I know that's what you're aiming for.
04:24That's your objective.
04:25What is a healthy level?
04:26Given the very important work that you outlined in your statement, what is the level that you recommend you should have?
04:38Comport with your dollars available to you and the work that you have.
04:44So in light of the dollars available to me, the number we've been discussing around 1100 is the healthy level because that's the affordable level.
04:50In terms of accomplishing our mission, we can accomplish the mission with 1100 employees.
04:55I have no doubt about it.
04:57Because our people are really, really good, we have shifted our priority, especially away from rulemaking, which is time and resource intensive, back toward law enforcement and are moving resources in that way.
05:09And that is the priority of this administration.
05:11It's my priority, and we have the employees to do that.
05:13Okay.
05:14And is your request, is an FTE level 1100 to be funded to 1100?
05:20Is that your request?
05:21So given the current status of the budget.
05:24I know we have a skinny budget at this point in time, so that's, you may or may not be able to.
05:28So I'm not in a position to discuss the specifics.
05:31But what I'm saying is 1100 is healthy given the current CR funding level, and we will get the job done, period.
05:39Okay.
05:39Well, I'm a little over time.
05:41I'm not sure what you mean, given the current funding level.
05:44What I really want to know, and maybe you can do for the record, is, what level do you think you need to accomplish the objectives you set forth in your statement?
05:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:53You'll have another round, too.
05:54Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:55Oh, good.
05:55Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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