Wright Leaving FTC; May See Successor Paired With Rosenworcel
FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright said he plans to resign effective Aug. 24. He said Monday he plans to return to his former job as a George Mason University School of Law professor and director of the school’s Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center. That will leave the commission with a 3-1 Democratic majority and Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen its sole Republican. Although it won’t affect the commission’s partisan balance, industry stakeholders told us that the loss of one of the FTC’s two Republican voices will likely prompt Capitol Hill to pressure President Barack Obama to quickly name a replacement.
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Some see that successor being paired with a renomination for FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. FTC commissioners have seven-year terms, with Wright’s current term set to expire in September 2019. Wright’s replacement’s term will expire that month regardless of his or her start date.
Wright’s resignation announcement was widely expected because rumors of his planned departure circulated widely during the negotiations over the language of the FTC’s Section 5 policy statement on the commission’s authority to take enforcement actions against unfair methods of competition (see 1508130045), said Seth Bloom, a lobbyist and former Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee general counsel. Wright was “the driving force behind” the Section 5 policy statement, which “is a major accomplishment for him, so it seems like a logical time for him to go,” Bloom said. The FTC’s recent “bipartisan effort” on the Section 5 policy statement is one of “the most fulfilling experiences of my career,” Wright said in a statement. Hopefully, he said that the FTC will “benefit from my efforts to foster the continued integration of economic analysis into all facets of our competition and consumer protection missions.”
Wright is the more conservative of the FTC’s two Republican members, and his imminent absence from the FTC will further tip the balance toward the commission’s three Democrats, so “I imagine that there will be an effort in fairly short order to get another Republican commissioner nominated,” Bloom said. “Clearly Wright’s departure will be a loss to those who share his philosophy, but it’s not a fundamental shift since it’s been a Democratic-majority commission since Obama took office.”
Senate Commerce Committee consideration of Wright’s eventual FTC successor could be a natural pairing with the renomination of Rosenworcel to another five-year term, Bloom said. Obama sent Rosenworcel’s renomination to the Senate in May, though she can continue to serve until the end of 2016 without any congressional action (see 1505220031). Pairing Rosenworcel with Wright’s replacement could speed the confirmation process for both, as has happened in the past, Bloom said. The offices of Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., and ranking member Bill Nelson, D-Fla., didn't comment.
“The FTC’s functioned on four commissioners before, but it’s a question of how long it’ll take for the Senate to confirm whoever replaces Wright,” Bloom said. “Since the Republicans control the Senate, you wouldn’t think that would be a heavy lift, but nominations are never easy. We might be seeing a four-person commission for some time.”
The FTC “has benefited greatly from [Wright’s] perspective as a lawyer and economist in connection with the matters that have come before us,” said Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in the commission’s statement announcing Wright’s planned resignation. Commissioner Terrell McSweeny tweeted Monday she would miss working with Wright. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai noted their collaboration on Internet regulation and Wright’s opinion in the Ardagh/Saint-Gobain decision that “the government should evaluate possible merger efficiencies under a standard of proof similar to that applied to predicted anticompetitive effects.”
Wright’s academic leave from GMU was set to expire at year-end, his office said. He replaced retiring Commissioner Thomas Rosch in January 2013 (see report in the Jan. 14, 2013, issue).