Blumenthal Introduces FTC Nominee Lina Khan Before Commerce Committee Confirmation Hearing

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced Lina Khan before the hearing in the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee to consider her nomination to be Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.

“You have deep expertise and insight, tremendous experience, and frankly, the guts and grit that you demonstrated already to stand up to powerful corporations and special interests that now threaten competition in this country,” Blumenthal said. “We are at a unique moment for our nation's economy – one of recovery, but at the same time seeking greater equity and competition that benefits consumers ultimately. And you are, indeed, the right person for this agency right now.”

The full transcript of Blumenthal’s remarks is copied below.

I have the tremendous honor to introduce Lina Khan, who I long admired, and want to thank her family as well for their support.

Ms. Khan, your story is so inspiring: an immigrant story, an American story about extraordinary accomplishment but also giving back to America in such wonderfully important and life changing ways. You've already helped countless people through your insights and expertise. Your amazing writings and so many academic journals but also your involvement in public service in this Congress, in both the Senate and the House.

So, you have deep expertise and insight, tremendous experience, and frankly, the guts and grit that you demonstrated already to stand up to powerful corporations and special interests that now threaten competition in this country.

The fact is that our nation is in an economic crisis. We need to revive our economy. But we need to do it in a way that protects consumers. And, in fact, consumers have suffered deeply as a result of this pandemic. The frauds and the deception that has been involved in many of the schemes that we see on the internet right now.

And the nation is also in a privacy crisis. We've seen the intrusions and the breaches of data that have occurred. We're in a competition crisis. No one has described it better than you have. And we thank you for calling attention to the effects of unchecked consolidation and monopolization that preceded but have now been aggravated and highlighted during the pandemic.

So, we are at a unique moment for our nation's economy – one of recovery, but at the same time seeking greater equity and competition that benefits consumers ultimately. And you are, indeed, the right person for this agency right now.

As the Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection in this committee and a member of the Antitrust Subcommittee on Judiciary so ably led by Senator Klobuchar, I look forward to working with you on all of these areas. And I look forward to the leadership that you will bring to protecting consumers in competition as a member of the FTC.

Thank you for your willingness to serve. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

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