House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said he still wants to strip the Federal Trade Commission of its antitrust authority despite abandoning the idea as part of Republicans’ reconciliation bill.
We reported Wednesday that key senators were concerned the policy would run afoul of the chamber’s arcane reconciliation rules. They require that any section of a filibuster-proof reconciliation bill be limited to provisions that primarily affect spending and revenue levels.
Jordan cited our report in an interview as the reason he decided to strip the FTC proposal from his committee’s reconciliation package.
“We don’t want to do anything that could maybe make it more difficult to get the one big beautiful bill done,” Jordan said.
Jordan insisted he’s not giving up, though.
“We’ll just do it in a standalone bill,” he said, noting the Judiciary Committee advanced a version of the measure last year. The bill didn’t get a floor vote.
An about face. The provision would have moved the FTC’s antitrust enforcement powers over to the Justice Department, which also polices violations of competition laws.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told us he wasn’t confident the Senate parliamentarian would rule that the proposal was kosher. Lee is the leading congressional advocate of moving the FTC’s antitrust authorities to Justice.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was also skeptical of including the policy in a reconciliation bill even though he said he’s generally open to streamlining antitrust enforcement.
Following our report, Jordan introduced an amendment to strip the FTC section from his panel’s reconciliation package.
