F.T.C. Chair Faces Criticism in Congressional Hearing (Published 2023)

Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission, faced more than three hours of criticism and ridicule from Republicans in a House hearing on Thursday, as emboldened critics increasingly put pressure on the agency for its crackdown on the growing power of tech giants.

During the highly partisan hearing, Republicans accused Ms. Khan, who has carried out an aggressive agenda of lawsuits and investigations against tech companies, of “harassing” businesses. The lawmakers, who repeatedly cut off Ms. Khan midsentence, also ridiculed her for the F.T.C.’s recent losses in antitrust cases and for wasting government resources.

“You are now 0 for 4 in merger trials,” Representative Kevin Kiley, Republican of California, said at the House Judiciary Committee hearing. “Why are you losing so much?”

The blistering session capped a bruising week that has brought greater scrutiny to the F.T.C. It was Ms. Khan’s first public appearance since a judge ruled on Tuesday against the agency’s attempt to stop Microsoft’s $70 billion acquisition of Activision. It was a major defeat in a tech case for the F.T.C. after another judge decided in May against its attempt to block Meta’s acquisition of a virtual reality app maker, Within.

Ms. Khan, a legal scholar, has become a lightning rod for her efforts to rein in corporate power and to give the F.T.C. more teeth in enforcement. Since President Biden picked her to lead the agency two years ago, she has said the F.T.C. was too complacent and needed to pursue more lawsuits against companies, even if it did not always win. Even in court losses, she has said, the cases expose the need to update antitrust laws for the digital age.

Ms. Khan’s aggressive agenda, which has spanned industries beyond tech, has rattled the agency, where two Republican commissioners and several senior officials have resigned. Christine Wilson, one of the former Republican members, accused Ms. Khan of abusing her power as chair. This month, Mr. Biden nominated the solicitor general for Virginia, Andrew Ferguson, and for Utah, Melissa Holyoak, to fill the Republican seats.