Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sent a letter Thursday to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Lina Khan challenging her cost estimate for a new rule which is based solely on an internal staff survey.
Cruz calls out the proposed rule in the letter obtained first by the Daily Caller, saying it would overhaul the premerger filings required under the Hart Scott Rodino Act (HSR), which would impact nearly every major merger. In the letter, Cruz raises concerns that the actual cost may be much higher than the FTC says, as the FTC’s method for calculating the costs of the new rules depends on an internal survey of FTC employees.
Cruz is the ranking member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Cruz, Top Republicans Push Back Against Agency Weaponizing Biden’s Woke Agenda)
“On June 29, the Federal Trade Commission (‘FTC’) published a Notice of Proposed Rule making (‘NPRM’) that would dramatically expand the premerger notification requirements. No doubt these rules will impose a significant burden on businesses across all industries. The FTC claims that the burden will not be that great: it will only take companies four times longer to complete the requisite filings under the new rules, costing industry $350 million annually,” Cruz wrote in the letter.
Here Is What Cruz Asks For In The Letter:
- Please explain how the survey of FTC employees regarding the estimated time it would take parties to prepare HSR filings under the new rules was conducted
- Please provide the full results of the survey, including all responses.
- Please provide all communications to and from members of the premerger notification office regarding the survey.
- Please provide any instructions given by an FTC Commissioner’s office and/or a Director or Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition to a member of the premerger notification office regarding the survey.
- Please provide support for the following projections and assumptions in the NPRM.
READ THE LETTER HERE:
(DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) — … by Henry Rodgers
“Yet the real cost may be much higher if the FTC under estimated the additional hours of labor that the new rules demand. It very well may have done so: the FTC bases its estimation on nothing other than an internal survey of its own staff. What is more, the FTC does not provide any detail into this survey. The FTC should show its work,” Cruz added. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Cruz Leads Bicameral Republicans In Defending American Sovereignty, Protecting Second Amendment)
FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson announced her resignation in February, saying she refuses to help Biden’s appointed Chair Lina Khan and her “abuses of government power” by staying in her position.
Republicans have continued to voice their concern with Khan’s role on the FTC.
Cruz called for a response from the FTC by September 14, 2023.