Vishal Mehta spoke to Global Competition Review about the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) chair Lina Khan and commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter suggesting that Congress consider changes to U.S. merger control law and increase FTC funding as the agency revised the premerger notification thresholds for transactions.
"Under its current leadership, the agency has not been shy about issuing statements or announcing action in areas where it believes changes to merger enforcement may be warranted, or not," Vishal said.
He added: "Although many of the proposals involve significant points of partisan divergence and remain subject to the political process, increased funding for the U.S. antitrust agencies appears to be an area of bipartisan consensus. In light of the broad bipartisan support for increased agency funding through higher HSR [Hart-Scott-Rodino Act] filing fees, legislation modifying merger review in this area probably has a clearer path to passage than many other reforms being debated on the Hill."
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