Franken Weighs In With DOJ on Comcast-TWC

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) on Wednesday sent a letter to the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, urging it to take net neutrality into consideration as it evaluates the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.  Noting that “[n]et neutrality protects consumers by prohibiting broadband service providers…from picking and choosing which lawful Internet content will reach homes and offices across the country,” Sen. Franken endorsed principles of net neutrality and settlement-free peering arrangements as conditions of the deal going forward.

Sen. Franken further noted that while Comcast has repeatedly mentioned its ongoing net neutrality obligations required by the Federal Communications Commission as part of its acquisition of NBCUniversal, those obligations expire in 2018, “which raises the question of what happens after that time.”

The full text of the letter may be found here.

Previously, Sen. Franken quite vocally opposed AT&T’s proposed acquisition of wireless carrier T-Mobile.

Also calling for strong net neutrality rules and settlement-free peering arrangements in the past 48 hours is Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, who in a blog post yesterday acknowledged that the company is paying Comcast “a toll” to ensure that Netflix customers with Comcast as their ISP continue to receive a high-quality broadcast of its streaming video service.

posted by Anant Raut

Budget Agreement May Give FTC, DOJ Breathing Room

The Washington Post reports today that the bipartisan budget agreement reached earlier this week is likely to pass Congress.  Late Tuesday evening, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Budget Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, reached a bipartisan, bicameral budget agreement that, if passed, may provide some relief to the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division from the continuing effects of the sequestration.

Currently, the antitrust enforcement agencies are operating under the budget cuts mandated by the sequestration.  As the law stands, even larger cuts were scheduled to kick in across the board next year.  Instead, the budget deal would restore approximately half of the non-defense discretionary spending that would have automatically been cut.

The budget of the antitrust agencies is appropriated annually as discretionary spending.  WaPo reports that the budget deal is expected to pass the House this week and the Senate next week, and appropriations committees in both chambers would work over the holidays to prepare funding bills for individual agencies.

posted by Anant Raut

Hub City Mayors Press DOJ to Clear USAir/AA

Mayors of cities that serve as hubs for USAirways and American Airlines have co-signed a letter to the Justice Department, urging the Antitrust Division to drop its challenge to the USAirways/American Airlines merger, The Hill reports.  The letter touts the benefits of the merger to their local economies, characterizes it as necessary to compete with recently merged Delta-Northwest and United-Continental, and rather pointedly mentions that the latter was cleared by the current Antitrust Division.

The letter also oddly states that the cities themselves will be  at a “competitive disadvantage” to the hub cities of Delta and United.

The letter is signed by the mayors of Charlotte (NC), Chicago (IL), Dallas (TX), Fort Worth (TX), Miami (FL), Philadelphia (PA), and Phoenix (AZ).  The full article may be read here.

posted by Anant Raut

Audio from Oct. 1 Panel on Gvt Shutdown Now Available

The audio from yesterday’s Legislative Committee panel, “What Happens When the Lights Go Out:  Antitrust and Consumer Protection and the Government Shutdown,” is now available for members of the American Bar Association’s Section on Antitrust Law here.

posted by Anant Raut

This Week in Congress

A federal government shutdown, effective immediately at midnight tonight, seems increasingly likely.  Last week, the Democrat-controlled Senate rejected portions of a House budget bill that would have defunded the Affordable Care Act, voting out instead a 3-month continuing resolution (CR) that would have funded the federal government at current sequester levels through mid-November.  On Friday, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives sent back to the Senate an amended version of the CR that would have delayed implementation of the Affordable Care Act for a year (vote count:  231-192) and permanently repealed a medical device tax that is part of the Affordable Care Act (vote count: 248-174) and intended to help finance the law.

Today, the Senate comes back into session at 2pm.  The amendments to the CR passed by the House can be voted down with a simple majority, which is what is expected to occur.  After that, the two chambers have until midnight to agree upon a budget bill before funding for the federal government expires.

The FTC and the DOJ have already posted their shutdown plans, available here (FTC) and here (DOJ).  This blog will continue to report breaking developments regarding the shutdown as it relates to the federal antitrust agencies.

Hearings

Wednesday, October 2nd @2pm

The House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law is scheduled to hold a hearing entitled “Dodd-Frank’s Impact on Competition in the Financial Industry.”  A witness list is not yet available.

Rayburn 2237

Thursday, October 3rd @11am

The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to hold an executive session to vote on several nominations, including that of Terrell McSweeny, nomimated for Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission.  Ms. McSweeny’s nomination is not considered controversial.  Once a nominee has been voted out of committee, his/her nomination must then be confirmed by a vote on the floor of the Senate (subject to filibuster).

Russell 253

posted by Anant Raut

DOJ Posts Shutdown Plan

With a federal government shutdown increasingly likely on Tuesday, October 1st, the Department of Justice posted its shutdown plan (the Antitrust Division is discussed on page 7).  The shutdown plan is available for viewing here.

posted by Anant Raut

This Week in Congress

Wednesday, May 15th

House Judiciary holds an oversight hearing for the Department of Justice.  No witness list has been released yet, although Attorney General Holder will presumably testify.

1:00pm @ 2141 Rayburn

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Senate Judiciary Schedules Antitrust Oversight Hearing

Earlier today, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee noticed a general oversight hearing of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice for Tuesday, April 16, 2013, at 2:30pm.  Both Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General Baer and FTC Chairwoman Ramirez are scheduled as witnesses.

Agency oversight hearings are a regular occurrence, and typically occur once per Congress (biannually) if not once per session of Congress (annually).

A link to the notice may be found here.

posted by Anant Raut

Communications Sector an Area of Interest for Antitrust Division, Says AG Holder

During yesterday’s Department of Justice oversight hearing, Attorney General Holder responded in the affirmative when asked point blank by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-WI), Chair of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, whether the communications sector would be an area of focus for the Antitrust Division under Assistant Attorney General William Baer.

More details about the oversight hearing may be found here.  (It should be noted that in the context of the full answer, Attorney General Holder does not appear to suggest that the communications sector will receive greater scrutiny than it currently does.)

posted by Anant Raut

Report: Baer Confirmed As AAG

According to the DOJ website, Bill Baer was confirmed as Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, earlier today.  A link to the press release is found below:

“Attorney General Eric Holder Welcomes Bill Baer as Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division”

posted by Anant Raut