Senate Advances Alvaro Bedoya Nomination; Confirmation Would Break FTC Deadlock
deadline.comThe Senate narrowly advanced the nomination of Alvaro Bedoya to the Federal Trade Commission, as Democrats seek to end a deadlock on the commission and advance an agenda likely to take a harder line on corporation consolidation and tech giants.The vote on Wednesday was 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie.
The Senate Commerce Committee split 14-14 earlier this month on the nomination, meaning that Democrats needed to use a more complicated legislative maneuver to move it forward via what is called a discharge petition.
Bedoya now faces additional Senate votes before confirmation, but that can happen if all members of the Democratic caucus stick together.The FTC under chair Lina Khan did not challenge Amazon’s acquisition of MGM before the two companies closed the transaction, disappointing some union and public interest groups that had urged the agency to take a harder line.
But any effort to challenge the merger likely would have been complicated by the lack of a Democratic majority on the FTC given the expectation that two Republican commissioners were expected to vote against a challenge to the transaction.Still, the Writers Guild of America, Teamsters and other groups have urged the FTC to still challenge the transaction even post-merger.
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