As a former commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), I have been concerned in recent years to see the agency stray far from its law enforcement mission. Too often, the FTC has stretched its regulatory muscles through highly questionable solutions seemingly in search of problems. The commission truly needs new leadership — leadership that will strongly enforce existing laws against actual and obviously potential fraud, instances of market failure and deceitful practices that harm consumers. Bureaucratic “make-work” and stretching the limits of imagination, such as sweeping “guidance” and politically slanted “reports” must be avoided.
The FTC, in its regulatory enforcement role, must return to the proven “do no harm” approach to its role in our economy. President Trump made a wise choice in selecting Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen as the acting chairman of the FTC. She is uniquely qualified to lead the FTC to confront real and significant problems facing our consumers and businesses. Redirecting the FTC to its proper role will require strong leadership. Acting Chairman Ohlhausen is uniquely qualified to take on this challenge. Without question, she would be an outstanding permanent chairman for the FTC. President Trump should make that happen.
The FTC can play an important role in the pursuit of the president’s goals. The agency has two essential responsibilities: promoting competition and protecting consumers. Both responsibilities are significant as President Trump seeks to release the economic potential and creativity of our country and its industrious people.
The president wants to make the government less burdensome to businesses and more accountable to our citizens. He needs an FTC properly enforcing laws and regulations. That will require a leader who shares his vision and has the experience and ability to implement it immediately.
The president will not find an experienced leader more capable of running the Federal Trade Commission than Acting Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen. She knows the FTC as thoroughly as anyone — a very necessary quality. Her professional career as an attorney is noteworthy. She has fulfilled her many duties flawlessly in several roles of great responsibility within the FTC over recent years. She worked as my attorney advisor during my tenure as a commissioner from 1997 to 2005. She later succeeded Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning.
Her experience in the private sector is admirable. She served as a clerk for the legendary Judge David Sentelle. Most recently, as a Republican FTC commissioner, she has been a strong voice for a measured FTC that focuses on its true role of a law enforcement agency working on behalf of all consumers and all businesses.
As acting chairman, Ohlhausen recently said during a speech before the American Bar Association in Atlanta, the FTC should focus enforcement on matters where consumers are harmed or where companies don’t keep their promises. She believes the agency should focus on cases with properly and objectively determined concrete harms such as diminished or disrupted competition, monetary injury, and unwarranted health and safety risks. She believes consumers benefit greatly from free, honest and competitive markets.
The FTC is well-suited to minimize consumer harm and to promote competition. It must use its authority properly and without prejudice. To do so demands an ethical, experienced, knowledgeable and courageous leader committed to doing what is proper. Acting Chairman Ohlhausen’ s top priority appropriately is to re-focus the FTC on its traditional missions of promoting competition and consumer welfare.
Acting Chairman Ohlhausen’s ability to separate real from imagined problems is clearly seen in her record on privacy and data security. She is always striving to better understand new technologies and business models to better determine whether there has been real harm done to consumers.
As more federal agencies crowd the privacy field, Acting Chairman Ohlhausen also knows that no agency should act in a vacuum. The FTC is the world’s most active protector of consumer privacy and data security, with more than 150 internet-related privacy and data security cases over the past 15 years many against the biggest online tech companies.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under President Obama proposed privacy rules that would supplant existing, successful privacy frameworks for broadband internet service providers (ISPs). Ohlhausen forcefully objected to the FCC’s special treatment of big tech companies. The proposed rules would hinder ISPs’ use of non-sensitive data, even though other companies like Google and Facebook were not restricted in their use of that same data to offer innovative and free services.
Should regulators treat ISP data collection differently than website data collection, consumers likely will be confused. Many do not distinguish between ISPs and websites. Rules like this also hamstring competition by restricting ISPs compared to other companies in the internet ecosystem who might use the same non-sensitive data for the same purpose, such as advertising. Given Ohlhausen’ s wise and persistent opposition, one can imagine a rational partnership between an Ohlhausen-led FTC and the FCC under the leadership of Chairman Ajit Pai, a partnership that will act to create a fair, level playing field for all players in the internet world. That new level playing field will best promote competition and consumer benefits.
Acting Chairman Ohlhausen has worked tirelessly to lay the groundwork for a new era at the FTC. American businesses and consumers deserve her experience, knowledge and leadership. She will be an able leader in President Trump’s quest to drain the swamp, reduce costly regulation and rid the government of corruption. She is the obvious choice for FTC chairman.
Orson Swindle served as commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. Prior to his appointment, he served as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Reagan, following a distinguished military career. Swindle also previously worked as an internal advisor to Google promoting innovation, a position he left in 2011.
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