Innovation, Data, and Commerce

Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) today sent letters to five independent federal agencies urging the Biden-Harris administration appointees to abandon partisan efforts and instead focus remaining efforts on bipartisan, consensus items.   The letters state, “The results of the 2024 presidential election are now apparent and leadership of the [agency] will soon change. As a traditional part of the peaceful transfer of power, the [agency] should immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial item under consideration, consistent with applicable law and regulation.”    Click below to read each agency’s letter:   Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Federal Communications Commission (FCC)   Federal Trade Commission (FTC)   Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)   Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Note: In the letter, Chair Rodgers urges NRC to continue timely implementation of the ADVANCE Act. 

Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) delivered the following opening remarks at today’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee hearing titled “Federal Trade Commission Practices: A Discussion on Past Versus Present.”  “Thank you to our distinguished witnesses who are here today to discuss the current state of an agency we all want to be there for us if we’ve been defrauded or deceived.  “The FTC’s core mission is to be at the forefront of protecting Americans, making it critical that they earn and keep the public’s trust and respect.”  DECADES OF BIPARTISANSHIP AND FOCUS   “I have been clear from the start of this Congress about my concern that the current FTC is heading in the wrong direction.  “Prior to the Biden-Harris administration, the FTC always worked to build consensus and champion bipartisanship.  “Certainly, there were differences of opinion—not every decision ended in a five to zero vote.  “However, at that time, commissioners and staff embraced a culture where they could freely exchange ideas and feel heard.  “Those open and honest discussions allowed the FTC to act in the American people’s best interest and garner the public’s trust.  “Disappointingly, this 40-year tradition and culture has been lost.  “The FTC has long acted as a ‘cop-on-the beat,’ not as a sector specific regulator in the way the Food and Drug Administration is, for instance.  “Unfortunately, the Commission has assumed more power and become a heavy-handed economy-wide regulator.  “This change in direction has led to many contentious and expensive court battles.  “I worry that the time spent in courtrooms—defending departures from past practices—is undermining the FTC’s core mission and overall success.  “I’m not alone in this view. The Supreme Court has concluded in unanimous decisions that the FTC’s historically commonly used tools have been expanded to become controversial and exceed their statutory authority.”  FTC NORMS AND PRACTICES   “Most notably, we have seen a breakdown in norms and practices that were considered commonplace in previous Democratic and Republican administrations.  “By removing ‘without unduly burdening legitimate business activity’ from its mission statement, the Commission has sent a clear message that it wants to be feared, instead of being a good-faith regulator.  “Job creators across the country now live in fear of receiving a letter out of blue threatening them on behavior they may not even be engaged in.  “Additionally, FTC Commissioners' rights have steadily eroded and access to important FTC business has been more shielded than ever.  “The Commission must take simple steps to start correcting course.  “For example, a cost benefit analysis should be done for all rules, 6B reports, and enforcement actions and commissioners and staff should have direct access to the economists working on it.”  DANGEROURS BRIAN DRAIN   “I’m hopeful that with a full set of commissioners, such access to the Econ Bureau and its specialists will again be the norm.  “Sadly, many career staff have chosen to leave or retire due to the decline of the agency's culture and disregard for its true mission.  “Respected surveys have shown employee morale and confidence in senior Commission leadership has steeply declined.  “Prior to Chair Khan’s appointment to the FTC, 87 percent of surveyed FTC employees agreed that senior agency officials maintained high standards of honesty and integrity.  “That number quickly dropped to 53 percent after just one year, then down to 47 percent a year later.  “It is also alarming that full time positions that Congress authorized for the FTC’s fraud prevention mission have been re-tasked to other areas.  “This is wrong and a clear attempt to bypass Congress and utilize the EU to impose more influence over U.S. companies since the Biden-Harris administration couldn’t find consensus here at home.  “Congress needs to reassert its Article I authority and act to stop this ongoing erosion of norms and longstanding Commission practices and restore the once strong processes of the FTC.  “While we have proposed legislation in the past, some of it has quickly become dated. I look forward to hearing from the experts here today on what Congress can do to put the FTC back on track and set the Commission up for success. “I know we share these goals, and I hope we can work together to achieve them.” 

Washington D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) delivered the following opening remarks at today’s hearing titled “Federal Trade Commission Practices: A Discussion on Past Versus Present.”    CURRENT FTC IS BREAKING HISTORIC NORMS “A couple months ago, our subcommittee welcomed the five Commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to examine the current state of the agency.  “The specific focus of that hearing being to examine how Chair Khan is using the budget that Congress has afforded the Commission to carry out its mission. “During that hearing, I spoke about the bipartisan concern of Chair Khan’s priorities, intended or not, which have torn down the historic norms, practices, and reputation of the FTC as a consumer protection agency. “The precedent now being set matters—and we should discuss what this means for the future of the FTC’s trust with both consumers and business.”  DETERIORATING FTC CULTURE “Over the last few years, we’ve seen staff morale plummet. Despite being an independent agency, career staff no longer have the independence they used to have, particularly in educating consumers about avoiding scams. “Staff hours and resources that could have been spent protecting seniors in my state and others from scams were shifted to press releases and expansive rulemakings and competition issues.   Meanwhile, our constituents continue to be defrauded on a daily basis. “It just sends the wrong message when for decades, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, career experts were able to work with their economist counterparts to assess the cost and benefit of a proposal. “Instead, sadly that once commonplace approach was upended and powers consolidated under the Chair’s general counsel office. “This kind of approach isolates the commissioners from their value and expertise within the agency and further ups the ante on partisanship, rather than faithfully executing the law. “The whole process gets corrupted this way, as too often left out of FTC proposals is important economic analysis and thorough stakeholder collaboration and—of course—what impact may be had on the backbone of our economy otherwise known as legitimate businesses. “This shift of actively seeking civil penalties and sending warning letters to have the judicial standing to seek them is inappropriate and predatory and must be abandoned. “The FTC should seek to encourage compliance of their policies, not bank on enforcement. “We cannot allow this FTC to continue to ruin its prior reputation as the premier consumer protection agency for the country.” RETURNING FTC TO THEIR MISSION “Their task to protect consumers from fraud and scams is too important to dedicate resources on legal theories and gotcha schemes. “My words may be harsh, and I may be upsetting some of my colleagues, but every day my constituents are plagued by scams: examples such as bad actors stealing seniors’ hard-earned money by pretending to be a loved one in search of help or claiming they’re a government agency warning of impending legal trouble that only a 500-dollar gift card could solve. “And in this economy, according to reports, Florida ranked third in most scams reported by residents: 1,393 per 100,000 residents. “This hearing serves to take a fresh eye to older reform proposals, to start thinking about new ones, and get the FTC back to its tried-and-true approaches and its essential consumer protection role. “Americans every day are getting ripped off. “I know each of us want the FTC to have the tools they need to go after these bad actors, and we must be responsible when legislating to prevent history from repeating itself from when much earlier iterations of the FTC tried to enact expansive rulemakings. “Let’s use this discussion today to learn what we can be doing to reform the FTC and turn it back into an agency each of us, on both sides of the aisle, would be willing to go to bat for.” 

Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) today sent letters to five independent federal agencies urging the Biden-Harris administration appointees to abandon partisan efforts and instead focus remaining efforts on bipartisan, consensus items.   The letters state, “The results of the 2024 presidential election are now apparent and leadership of the [agency] will soon change. As a traditional part of the peaceful transfer of power, the [agency] should immediately stop work on any partisan or controversial item under consideration, consistent with applicable law and regulation.”    Click below to read each agency’s letter:   Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Federal Communications Commission (FCC)   Federal Trade Commission (FTC)   Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)   Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Note: In the letter, Chair Rodgers urges NRC to continue timely implementation of the ADVANCE Act. 

Letter comes on the eve of athletes competing in the Paris Olympics and after WADA’s President refused to attend an Energy and Commerce Committee oversight hearing Washington, D.C. — In a new letter to World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Witold Banka, bipartisan House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders pressed for answers regarding WADA’s handling of positive doping cases within China’s national swimming team ahead of the Tokyo Olympics. The letter contains questions that bipartisan Committee Members would have asked during a recent Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing , which Mr. Banka was invited to attend but refused to appear. Witnesses that did testify at the hearing included: Michael Phelps, American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist   Allison Schmitt, American swimmer and Olympic gold medalist   Travis Tygart , Chief Executive Officer, United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) KEY EXCERPTS:   “We write today to express our sincere disappointment at your refusal to accept our invitation to attend and provide testimony at our recent Subcommittee hearing. Members of Congress have important questions for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and are especially concerned about recent reports of your handling of dozens of cases of doping within the Chinese swimming team.  “WADA purports to maintain the integrity of sports by creating a fair and competitive sporting environment free from doping. As a U.S. taxpayer supported entity, WADA has a responsibility to the American people to ensure this integrity by enforcing international testing requirements. We believe WADA has fallen short of this important mission. ”  [...]   “ We are particularly concerned with the excessive deference being extended toward CHINADA—a state-funded operation with leadership deeply intertwined with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as current [Chinese Anti-Doping Agency] CHINADA director Li Zhiquan also serves as a Committee Secretary for the CCP. At a meeting in 2023, Zhiquan called on CHINADA employees to be 'loyal to the party' and to 'hold high the great banner of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.' Furthermore, WADA’s reported sponsorship arrangement with ANTA Sports—the Chinese athletic company sponsoring the Chinese Olympic Committee and China’s national swimming federation—could be perceived as a conflict of interest. Since WADA is expected to uphold and maintain international anti-doping standards, WADA’s apparent lack of skepticism and failure to enforce the rules against CHINADA is troubling. While we are aware that WADA has opened an investigation, we are concerned that international scrutiny was necessary to force due diligence that should be routine .”  [...]  “This incident unfortunately reinforces our concern that WADA appears to be reverting to its previous poor management practices.”  [...]  “With the Paris Summer Olympic Games Opening Ceremony just a day away , the Committee seeks to better understand the circumstances surrounding WADA’s decision not to appeal the decision to clear the twenty-three swimmers who tested positive for trimetazidine.”   BACKGROUND :  In January 2021, 23 Chinese swimmers (“23 swimmers”) tested positive for trimetazidine, or TMZ, a banned substance improperly used to increase stamina and hasten recovery times.  Three months after the positive tests, CHINADA initiated an investigation into the source of the TMZ and by June 2021 claimed the athletes ingested the banned substance through food tainted in a hotel kitchen.  According to reporting, Chinese investigators “offered no explanation […] for how a prescription drug available only in pill form had contaminated an entire kitchen.”  In reliance on “external legal advice” and its science department, WADA determined that CHINADA’s claims were “plausible” and chose not to appeal the decision or further investigate the matter.  Three of these Chinese swimmers went on to win gold medals at the Tokyo Olympic Games in July of 2021.  China has selected 11 swimmers that tested positive for TMZ before the Tokyo Games to compete in the upcoming Paris Games.  In a strikingly similar case, Kamila Valieva, a Russian figure skater, also tested positive for the banned substance TMZ during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.  The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) issued a provisional suspension but was quickly cleared by RUSADA’s discipline board, since Valieva claimed she ingested the substance by mistake through a contaminated source.  Rather than simply accept RUSADA’s contamination explanation, WADA appealed the decision and ultimately, Valieva received a four-year ban from competition and was retroactively stripped of her gold medal. The letter was signed by Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., (D-NJ), Subcommittee on Innovation, Data, and Commerce Chair Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Ranking Member Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Ranking Member Kathy Castor (D-FL). CLICK HERE to read the full letter.

Washington, D.C. — House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) and Oversight and Acoountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) sent letters to eight federal agencies today following the recent Supreme Court decision on Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo , in which the court overruled Chevron deference. Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chair Frank Lucas (R-OK) and House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) joined Chairs Rodgers and Comer on an additional letter sent to the Environmental Protection Agency. KEY LETTER EXCERPT: “We write to call to your attention Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a recent Supreme Court decision that precludes courts from deferring to agency interpretations when the statutes are ambiguous. In its decision, the Court explicitly overruled Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), which required deference to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. By allowing such deference, the Court in Chevron enabled the ‘Administrative State’ to usurp the legislative authority that the Constitution grants exclusively to Congress in Article I. The Chevron decision led to broader, more costly and more invasive agency regulation of Americans’ lives, liberty, and property.   “Perhaps no administration has gone as far as President Biden’s in issuing sweeping Executive edicts based on questionable assertions of agency authority. The Biden administration has promulgated far more major rules, imposing vast costs and paperwork burdens, than either its most recent predecessors. Many of these rules...have been based on overreaching interpretations of statutes enacted by Congress years ago, before the issues now regulated were even imagined.   “The expansive Chevron deference has undermined our system of government, creating an unaccountable Administrative State. Thankfully, the Court has now corrected this pattern, reaffirming that ‘[i]t is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.’ Given the Biden administration’s record of agency overreach, we are compelled to underscore the implications of Loper Bright and remind you of the limitations it has set on your authority.”   CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Environmental Protection Agency. CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Federal Communications Commission.  CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Federal Trade Commission.  CLICK HERE to read the letter to Department of Commerce.   CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Department of Energy.  CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.  CLICK HERE to read the letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.  CLICK HERE to read the letter to the National Highway Transportation and Safety Administration.