Add one of Lina Khan’s fellow agency Democrats to the list of progressives calling for the Federal Trade Commission chair to keep her job.
The nod from Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter comes as some surrogates for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign signal they’d like to see Khan exit. But Slaughter’s praise also comes as some in tech whisper they’d prefer Slaughter take over the agency if Harris wins.
Here’s what Slaughter told reporters about Khan Wednesday evening:
Slaughter was speaking at the Capitol Hill townhouse of the Consumer Technology Association. During the Q&A, Slaughter said she loves opponents’ feedback, compromise and the boundaries of the FTC’s statutory authority.
Those qualities are ones that many in Big Tech and a good chunk of Senate Republicans complain Khan lacks. Whether the criticism of Khan is fair, there’s no doubt it’s made it tricky for the chair to secure confirmation to another term.
Slaughter, by contrast, was just reconfirmed by voice vote in March. A President Kamala Harris wouldn’t even need to use up precious Senate floor time to designate Slaughter as chair. In fact, Slaughter already served as chair on an acting basis for the first six months of the Biden administration.
To be clear: Slaughter insisted the portrait of Khan as dismissing industry feedback, ignoring Republican commissioners and scoffing at the law is off the mark.
Plus, Slaughter’s a reliable vote for Khan’s agenda. Any preference tech has for Slaughter is one of style, rather than her record.
Still, that style was on full display. “Compromise is a good thing,” Slaughter declared at one point.
There’s the new rule, from Wednesday, making it easier to cancel online subscriptions, for instance. Slaughter said she’d have wanted a warning from companies when they’re about to start charging consumers for a subscription. Slaughter didn’t think the record justified such a provision, though, which she said shows the agency knows it can’t just implement random policy dreams.
Slaughter also made clear some things must be punted over to the Hill, where she once worked as a counsel to then-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Slaughter said, not at all subtly, that a law mandating the subscription alert would be “an excellent consumer protection bill for someone in Congress to introduce.”
