May 15 (UPI) — Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson said the agency will do more to promote economic activity and protect consumers than it did under the Biden administration.

The challenges before the FTC “are as formidable as ever,” Ferguson told the House Appropriations Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee’s FTC budget hearing on Thursday morning.

“Our resources have been spread thin by the previous administration’s mismanagement,” Ferguson said, but he “resolutely believes” in the FTC’s mission.

The FTC chairman said the agency must undertake measures to address its resource constraints to ensure it operates as efficiently and effectively as possible while fulfilling its mission.

“No economic system in history has better promoted the common good than the American free-enterprise system,” he said. “No economic system has contributed more to human flourishing.”

The nation’s free-enterprise system “promotes the common good of all Americans only if we protect it from anti-competitive business practices, anti-competitive consolidation and fraud,” Ferguson told the subcommittee.

Focus on ‘vigorous law enforcement’

He said the Trump administration has taken the FTC back to its “roots,” and “vigorous law enforcement” is the agency’s focus.

The FTC is the only federal agency that protects consumers and promotes competition in most economic sectors, Ferguson explained.

“Congress established the FTC to be a cop on the beat for our markets, not to make the rules,” Ferguson told the subcommittee.

“We don’t get to pick and choose what laws we like and what laws we don’t,” he said. “We enforce the laws that the people, through their representatives in Congress, have decided best promote competition and fairness.”

The FTC’s current budget is $425.7 million, and costs for its 1,221 personnel account for about two-thirds of its budgetary expenses, Ferguson said.

The agency recently eliminated 94 full-time employees to reach its current number of full-time employees.

Ferguson said more reductions will be made until the agency has its fewest full-time employees in a decade.

Eliminating an ‘ideological bent’ against mergers

The FTC under the Biden administration “took an aggressive and unprecedented approach” to rule-making” and “stretched its statutory authority” and at times “took a hostile view of mergers and acquisitions,” subcommittee Chairman Rep. David Joyce, R-Ohio, said.

He asked Ferguson how the FTC would take a different approach under his leadership.

Ferguson said the FTC had an “ideological bent against mergers and acquisitions” under the Biden administration.

“Mergers and acquisitions are a very critical part of how the economy grows and how we get innovation,” he said. “At the same time, protecting Americans from monopolies and anti-competitive conduct is very important.”

If the FTC thinks a deal is anti-competitive and it can win in court, “we’re going to go to court,” Ferguson said.

If the FTC decides it can’t win in court, he said, “we’re going to get out of the way quickly.”

The FTC under the Biden administration prohibited remedies or negotiations to address complications arising from proposed mergers and acquisitions, Ferguson said, but it will under his watch.

“The remedies have to be real. They have to be enforceable,” he explained, “and we have a strong preference for structural remedies over behavioral remedies.”

He said it’s possible to address anti-competitive aspects of a proposed merger instead of blocking it.

Such an approach is the primary difference in how the FTC will work now compared to how it handled such matters under the Biden administration, Ferguson said.

Addressing problems for workers, small businesses

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., raised several issues that he said “hamstring” workers, small businesses and consumers.

Such issues include right-to-repair equipment by small businesses, click-to-cancel provisions among online businesses, and non-compete clauses that could stop workers from moving on to other employment.

Ivey said he hopes the FTC will address such matters and then pivoted to the recent and unexpected firings of two Democratic commissioners in the FTC by the Trump administration.

The two filed legal challenges to their removals and say there was no reason for their firings.

Ivey said it’s important to ensure independent commissions remain independent and have a partisan balance.

Thorough review of prescription drug prices, pharmacy closures

Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, addressed pharmacy closures and said a solution is needed to ensure people have access to prescription drugs and pay fair prices.

She asked if the FTC intends to complete a study on pharmaceutical costs and the effect on consumers that was started under the Biden administration.

Ferguson said the FTC needs to produce a “very, very thorough accounting” of the matter and is “promoting a ton of resources” to the issue so federal and state governments have a full understanding of what is being done.

“I want it done as quickly as possible,” he said, “but I do not want speed to be the enemy of thoroughness.”

During additional testimony, Ferguson said the FTC is working to prevent illegal telemarketing calls, fraud that targets older Americans and service members, deceptive billing and cancellation policies, and unlawful ticket practices.

The FTC also is working to prevent unlawful data security and privacy practices while protecting American consumers.

The Trump administration is requesting another $425.7 million FTC budget for fiscal year 2026.

Ferguson said the FTC returned $333 million in value to consumers during the 2024 fiscal year.

The nearly two-hour hearing concluded just before noon EDT.