Advocates: Congress must step up and demand answers on attempted FTC firings
Media Contact: Lisa McDonald, Vice President of Communications, 202-207-2829
Washington, DC — Today, the National Consumers League and 24 other public interest organizations urged leaders of the House Energy and Commerce and Senate Commerce committees to investigate President Trump’s attempt to fire half of the commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission. The groups also urged the Senate to freeze President Trump’s nomination of Mark Meador to be the newest commissioner at the FTC until Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Slaughter regain full and permanent access to their Senate-confirmed positions.
“The president’s actions are harmful and illegal,” said NCL Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud John Breyault. “The Commission’s common sense, non-partisan work of cracking down on scammers and protecting children’s privacy cannot move forward without a fully functional FTC. Attempting to remove Commissioners Bedoya and Slaughter from the agency directly impedes the Commission’s ability to protect the American public.”
Just one week before the attempted firings, the FTC reported a 25% increase in year-over-year reported dollar losses to scammers. As a critical law enforcement agency responsible for protecting consumers from financial crimes and returning money for victims, the FTC received over 6.5 million consumer reports in 2024. The agency also returned $337.3 million to consumers last year—money that would be in the pockets of scammers and other criminals if the agency did not have a functioning complement of commissioners.
On the letter, NCL was joined by AFT, Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund (AFREF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC, Center for Democracy & Technology, Center for Digital Democracy, Center for Responsible Lending, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Check My Ads Institute, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Demand Progress, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Fight for the Future, Free Press, Muslim Advocates, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Consumer Law Center, National Consumers League, New America’s Open Technology Institute, Public Citizen, Public Knowledge, Tech Justice Law Project, Travelers United, Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, and Workers Injury Law & Advocacy Group.
The organizations’ letter to House and Senate can be found here.
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About the National Consumers League (NCL)
The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.
