After nearly a year without a Republican Commissioner after Christine Wilson’s resignation, the FTC will again have a full slate of five Commissioners – with two new Republican Commissioners in Melissa Holyoak and Andrew Ferguson confirmed last night. Shortly before the President’s State of the Union address, the Senate voted unanimously via voice vote to confirm Holyoak and Ferguson along with reconfirming current Democratic Commissioner Becca Slaughter to a new term.

We previously covered the Commissioners’ confirmation hearings here; those hearings focused on restoring bipartisanship that had long been considered a bedrock of the agency but that has been called into question under Chair Lina Khan. The hearings appeared to go smoothly and the nominees were swiftly approved by the Senate Commerce Committee in October, but floor action had been stalled, in part due to Senator Hawley’s (R-MO) concerns with the Ferguson nomination. Senator Hawley issued a statement yesterday indicating that now Commissioner Ferguson had ​“answered a series of questions from me in writing and also spoke with me in person at length,” and that he was now ​“pleased to support his nomination.”

Andrew Ferguson was previously Solicitor General for Virginia and helped lead a state-federal antitrust suit against Google for alleged monopolization of digital advertising markets, amongst other actions. Melissa Holyoak was the Solicitor General for Utah and also has been active in state-federal antitrust and consumer protection enforcement. Particularly given their litigation background, Ferguson and Holyoak will bring new and unique perspectives to the Commission’s litigation strategy from both the consumer protection and competition sides. Their relationships on the state level may also open up new channels for FTC partnership with state attorneys general.

Of course, at the end of the day, Chair Khan retains a strong and reliable majority with fellow democratic Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya. But it will be interesting to see whether Commissioners Holyoak and Ferguson vocally push back on certain initiatives and enforcement priorities similar to Commissioners Wilson and Phillips before their departures.

[View source.]