Chair Rodgers Opening Statement at Hearing on FTC's Departure from Standards and Practices

committee my good friend Mrs Rogers for five minutes for an opening statement thank you chair Bill rakus and 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 when 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 I've been clear from the start of this Congress about my concern that the current FTC is headed 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 5 zero vote however at that time Commissioners and staff embraced a culture where they could freely exchange ideas and feel heard these open and honest discussions allowed the FTC to act in the American people's best interest interest in Garner public trust disappointingly this 40-year tradition and culture has been lost the FTC has long acted as the cop on the beat not as a sector specific regulator in the way the FDA 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 con contentious and expensive Court battles I worry about the time spent in courtrooms defending departures from past practices is undermining the ftc's core Mission and overall success and I'm not alone in this view the Supreme Court has concluded in unanimous decisions that the ftc's historically commonly used tools that have been expanded to become controversial and exceed their statutory Authority most notably we've seen a breakdown in norms and practices that were considered common place in Pre previous Democratic and Republican administrations by removing quote 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 goodfaith regulator job creators across the country now live in fear of receiving a letter out of the blue threatening them on behavior that they may not even be engaged in additionally FTC Commissioners rights have been steadily eroded and access to important FTC business has been shielded more than ever the commission must take simple steps to start correcting course for example a a cost benefit analysis should be done for all rules 6B reports and enforcement actions and Commissioners and staff should have direct access to economists working on it I'm hopeful that with a full set of Commissioners such access to the Ecom Bureau and its specialist will again become the norm sadly many career staff have chosen to leave or retire due to the decline of the agency's culture and disregard to 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% of surveyed FTC employees agreed that senal sen senior a agency officials maintained high standards of honesty and integrity that number quickly dropped to 53% just after one year and then down to 47% a year later it's also alarming that full-time positions that Congress authorized for the ftc's fraud prevention Mission have been retasked to other areas this is wrong and a clear attempt to bypass Congress and utilize the EU to impose more influence over us companies since the Biden Harris ad Administration couldn't find consensus here at home Congress must assert its article one Authority and act to stop this ongoing erosion of norms and long-standing commission practices and restore the one 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 these are shared goals and I look forward to working together to achieve them thank you and I yeld back thank the uh the chairwoman and