FTC/NOMINATIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump will nominate antitrust attorney Joseph Simons as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, moving to install a hand-picked leader at the consumer protection agency that’s been without a permanent head for 10 months.
He also will nominate Noah Phillips, chief counsel for Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), for the FTC and consumer advocate Rohit Chopra for the commission’s open Democratic seat, according to the White House.
Simons is co-chairman of the antitrust group at the law firm Paul Weiss and a former FTC antitrust official during the George W. Bush administration. POLITICO first reported Trump had chosen him as FTC chairman in August.
The FTC, charged with protecting U.S. consumers and enforcing the country’s antitrust laws, has been led since late January by Republican Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen. As acting chairman, she’s only been able to fill key internal positions on a temporary basis, leaving the agency in a state of uncertainty.
Simons, if confirmed by the Senate, will immediately jump into some contentious issues, including calls from members of both parties to apply greater scrutiny to the nation’s biggest internet companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon.”
-Ashley Gol, Nancy Scola, and John Hendel, “Trump will nominate Joseph Simons for FTC chair,” Politico, Oct. 19, 2017 08:07am