Open Tech Policy Questions About Intended Trump FTC Nominee Slaughter
President Donald Trump’s intended nomination of Rebecca Slaughter, chief counsel to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to the vacant Democratic FTC seat likely ensures she and the other four commission nominees awaiting Senate confirmation will be moved together, several officials and lobbyists told us. The White House said Monday Trump plans to nominate Slaughter, as expected, after Schumer recommended her for the job earlier this year (see 1802060039 and 1803260049). Few communications and tech sector stakeholders commented publicly about Slaughter’s nomination by our deadline Tuesday, with some telling us they view her as essentially a blank slate on a range of tech policy issues before the FTC.
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Slaughter “will make an excellent FTC commissioner and I'm proud to have recommended her to the White House,” Schumer said in a statement. “Throughout her time in public service she has worked tirelessly and effectively. I'm confident that following her confirmation, those qualities will make her a tremendous addition to the Commission.” Slaughter has worked for Schumer since 2009, advising him on competition, consumer protection, privacy, IP and telecom policy issues, among others. She previously was a Sidley Austin associate.
Slaughter “stands right alongside” her fellow FTC nominees “as an excellent selection” for the commission, said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, in a statement. Trump nominees include antitrust lawyer Joseph Simons, whom Trump plans to designate chairman. The other nominees are former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Assistant Director Rohit Chopra; Noah Phillips, aide to Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas; and Delta Air Lines' Christine Wilson. “Almost daily, events are proving that we need a fully staffed [FTC], and that we need it sooner rather than later,” Hatch said.
All five FTC nominees could “get confirmed within a matter of weeks” as a group, though much will depend on the Senate Commerce Committee’s timeline for moving Slaughter, one industry lobbyist said. The Senate, like the House, is on recess and won’t reconvene until April 9. The White House also hadn't formally sent Slaughter’s nomination to the Senate at our deadline. Senate leaders would like to “get the FTC nominees confirmed as soon as possible” so Commerce could hold a hearing on Slaughter that week and then vote the following week to move her confirmation forward, the lobbyist said. “It would probably be easy to move all five nominees under unanimous consent” once Senate Commerce advances Slaughter, another lobbyist said. Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said last month after the committee voted to advance the other nominees that a Democratic nominee for the fifth seat would likely be needed to ensure easy confirmation of the group (see 1802280044). Senate Commerce didn’t comment.
Tech sector reaction to Slaughter’s nomination was limited Tuesday, though CTA President Gary Shapiro tweeted she would be “a great asset” to the FTC’s work. Slaughter’s nomination is in part a “center-left response” to Chopra’s selection for the other Democratic seat, one industry official said. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and other liberal senators “got exactly who they wanted” with Chopra's nomination, while Slaughter is believed likely to be “significantly less extreme” on a range of issues, the official said. Slaughter is believed to have been a driving force in moderating major portions of the Hill Democrats’ “A Better Deal” economic program, which Warren aides originally drafted, the official said. That plan proposed $40 billion in broadband funding (see 1709280062).
Slaughter has “advised Schumer for many years” on tech policy issues the FTC handles, but her role has been far less publicized because Schumer “has never been a player to a major extent” on those issues, excepting Schumer’s recent push to force a Senate vote on the Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval aimed at repealing the FCC’s rescission of its 2015 net neutrality rules (see 1712150049), one former FTC official said. “I’d imagine once she’s confirmed she could very well follow in the footsteps” of current Democratic Commissioner Terrell McSweeny and former FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez on many tech issues, but until then there isn’t much of a paper trail to predict what Slaughter will do, the official said.
Slaughter's lack of a public tech policy agenda is “to be expected for anybody who’s been on the Hill” and is “as true” for Phillips “as it is for her,” said TechFreedom founder Berin Szoka. “I’ve heard only good things about her from people across the aisle. Everyone thinks she’s really thoughtful and smart and exceptionally well qualified and well grounded in antitrust law.” It’s “pretty usual these days to nominate congressional staffers to these positions, and they are obviously supposed to have a relatively low profile,” said Technology Policy Institute Senior Fellow Tom Lenard. “I don’t see her as being less prepared for the job than many other people who have been FTC commissioners. I don’t know how she’d approach the issues but I have no reason to think she wouldn’t do a good job.” Consumer Watchdog Privacy and Technology Project Director John Simpson likewise emailed that he isn’t familiar with Slaughter beyond her connection to Schumer but he's “comfortable with a nomination from the Senate minority leader.”