Report it is 11 13 pretty good for senate time. I would like to call on senator markey. Thank you youre just as good [inaudible conversations] Grammar School you got that whole break in perfectly. Net neutrality, in december federal trade Commission Commission or mcsweenny wrote, quote, scrapping the fc cnet neutrality rules will harm consumers and content creators and federal trade commission is not going to be able to sop it. The federal trade commission does not have specialized expertise in telecommunications. We dont have engineers with Technical Expertise in data Network Management practices. These are very real and significant limits to effectiveness of the federal trade commissions tools in ensure ising that networks are open and free of harmful discrimination. Mr. Do you agree with commissioner rick. I share a lot of scept kism and concern and i would also add that given ongoing litigation and rule technician in the ninth circuit ftc may face unlevel Playing Field where some major parpghts are exempt from the commissions authority while others are subject to it. This assignment so you agree with mr. Sweeney . Thank you senator. My view if it gets back its authority in the internet space is going to be a vigorous enforcer and were going to take the Statutory Authority and use it as best we can. I dont know exactly what types of competitive or deceptive unfair practices may come up if those come up we can reach them under our statute and if we dont i would certainly come to you in the committee to talk to you about legislative. Federal trade commission lacks Rule Making Authority in the federal communications does have Rule Making Authority to prevent blocking, an paid prioritization so you do agree with that . We both have rule making and theyre different types of rule making but in terms of being able to deal with those issues of throttle, pads and blocking you dont have that authority. I want to talk to General Counsel Office before i give a specific anxious to that opinion im not entirely clear. Well, because in terms of senator in terms of just i want to reach a second subject and well say that does lack the authority. On kids privacy, there is a growing body of evidence from Child Development experts as well as Farmer Industry executives that technologies are purposely made to be addictive, and heres the goal of all of these companies it is like a Tobacco Industry you have to get them early. Because then they might be you know lifetime customers. So you have to get them at 11, at 12, 13, 14, get them hooked. Make it addictive and then youve got them for the rest of their lives. Under the commissions child Online Privacy protection act, mandate, which im the author of in 1999, what will you do to ensure that child applications and parent consent processes are fashioned in ways that really protect privacy ensure that parents can make informed decisions about their kids and that includes investigations into data practices enabling profiling and across devices applications and service . I agree that those laws first need to be vigorously enforced and second, weve seen the market develop so quickly in ways that parents and our whole society have not could not see coming in at of data being collected about over children, continue to increase. I think we need to be very vigilanting and come back to you especially if we feel we dont have adequate authorities to address this. Will you each commit to an active prochild policy Privacy Protection policy at the federal trade commission during your tenure if you are confirmed . This assignment . Yes, absolutely ms. Wilson. Senator i thank you for your leadership and i agree. If confirmed i agree. That is cutting set of issue it is time for these industries to come under scrutiny to be made accountable for or what theyre doing. I mean, the Public Health implications of this of now epidemic of addiction amongst young people especially in the Minority Community much higher. Interestingly than in other communities is something that we have to pay much closer attention to. Thank you madam chair. Senator thank you i want to thank senator cortez for allowing me to go before her. We have very good meetings thank you all of you, and i appreciate as well your bipartisan work that means a lot. Given how important these issues are, and i have three issues you can make pick who answers them. The first is on the paper delay issue. And i see former chair leibowitz out there something he worked with on length and we have cases that changed this but pharmaceutical prices in connection with and senator grassley and i have a bill that basically says that you cant make these deals to keep generics off the market and i just would like to get someones thoughts on that and importance of fcc play mr. Phillips. Senator thank you for your question as a Judiciary Committee im familiar of the issues and the president called weeks ago for a focus on cost of precipitation drugs. That is an a issue that hits all americans, myself included many in the pocketbook every day. Maybe every other day if a little bit healthier than i am right now. Fcc has a long bipartisan tradition of policing anticompetitive conduct in prescription markets. And if confirmed, i look forward to working with my fellow commissioners career staff with you on continuing that. Okay, thank you. Second question this cyberattack against equifax expose o personal information of more than 145 million americans especially thin that has a Credit History and i recently sent a letter urging the ftc to broaden its investigation of the equifax in response to reports indicating that the director of the office of management and budget had directed Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau investigators to pull back from their investigation. Mr. Simon what is the role in conduct this investigation and are you committed to advancing it . So senator i dont to prejudge any existing matter. But except to say that on any major issue involved certainly any major issue involving data breaches i would expect commission to be all over it. You know providing and using the necessary resources and just being very vying is rows. Okay. Thank you. And then my third and final area is antitrust. Im ranking along with senator lee chair the antitrust Sub Committee and judiciary and last fall i introduced merger enforcement improvement act and competition promotion act to enhance the ability the of angst trust agencies to conduct enforcement in current wave witf consolidation ensuring they have financial and Legal Resources to protect competition, i believe is more important than ever as these deals become more sophisticated as you see this kind of takeover of certain areas and especially what youre seeing right now in the bills as you know, one with is focused on getting more resources by having a fee on some of the mega mergers. Something that is i hope not that controversial so taxpayers arent footing bill here. For these complex reviews from the ftc as well as antitrust injustice and then the the second one is more focused on acknowledging the changes looking at other things. So mr. In current economic climate should merger enforce bottom a prior to for ftc in near to medium future and why and what can we do to bolster merger enforcement . Of course we shared issues with barriers to enter in so Many Industries with Small Business starts at a low. One of the observations i have about the commission in Government Agencies in general is that they are not its not to easy to adapt its personnel and work force to changing market conditions. The Interest Rate environment and what the markets tell us is that, these deals will be robust. Theyll be big. And whether the commission has adequate resources and flexibility to vigorously police in a timely fashion i think thats an open question for me and i would like to work further on that with you. Thank you, and wilson i promise to sending you a question on the record because ill give it over to cortez because she is so kind so thank you. Senator cortez thank you. Thank you very much. Pleasure to meet some of you and talk with you i know i have future meetings welcome to all of the family members all of you very patient although fidgeting a little bit compared to young kids over there. [laughter] but welcome, welcome and were almost done so let me start with a couple of questions. Just forking for all of you if t mind answering in a short answer can i get your commitment to be active Consumer Protection agency including on marketing practices and Data Securitying and privacy mr. Simons ill start with you. Easy yes senator. Absolutely yes senator. Absolutely, senator. Yes, and i would add the Commission Also need to be a keep partner with attorney general and others on this. Good that was another followup yes i had for you. Thank you. What did you envision is the most contentious difficult set of Consumer Protections coming before you if you are confirmed mr. Simons ill start with you. I think it is how we handle the the data breaches that are becoming, you know, much more significant much more frequent. And i think thats a real, real, real serious concern for us. And that we need to pay close attention to it. Thank you. I would tbrea with mr. Simons when i was at the commission in the early 2000s we have a great dealful tile working on Data Security and Consumer Privacy issues, and i foresee the same frankly in the coming years if confirmed. Thank you. Colleague senator i would add, though, we with cant allow contentious issues to distract us from the bread and Consumer Protection side looking out for children, veterans, elderly and americans generally. Thank you. I would agree on the issues related to big data. I would also add that it implicates the the Consumer Protection mission as well as the competition and privacy missions and it needs to be very high on the list if not highest. And the data breach at equifax also underscores how a fair credit reporting act in oversight of the credit reporting agencies needs to be paramount. Thank you. And then lets talk about interaction with states how do you envision your interaction with the states and the attorneys general on matters that you have similar when it comes to unfair accepted trade practices in competition ill start with mr. Simon . Very close working relationship. I think theyre critical to us using our assets efficient lis and them using theirs most efficiently. Much favor with it close working relationship. Senator not surprisingly agree with mr. Cy hones i think it is important to have the close relationship with the state attorney general who can be in many instances more familiar with the fact and nuances on the ground. Senator i agree with all of that. As you know well, state attorney general can be a force plyer they are also closer to ground and they understand issues how theyre imracting consumers better than we do. We need to continue their relationships. I can onlied a that we also need to work collaboratively with other o parts of the federal government because there are some area where is we may not have expertise but other parts do. Okay. Senator, as you know ive worked very frequently for the attorney general on Enforcement Matters over the years, and i would also like see us go beyond attorney general but other state officials who have unique expertise and authorities because that can be a different leverage point to make sure that taxpayer resources are being used defectively. And then how do you see the ftc continues to work with the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau to take action against companies that intentionally mislead autobuyers students and elderly homeowner os . Well with senator ill start ftc have existing memorandum of understanding to coordinate Enforcement Matters as well as other tools in its tool box. I think it is going to be especially critical to coordinate with the cfpb on specific population issues as well as areas where there is coextensive jiewrs diction including fair reporting act among other things. Scfnlings mr. Simons the same question. I agree with mr. Shopra. This is great to the extent ive seen this communication bipartisan everybody working together but let me ask you mr. Simons if you are the chair how do you incorporate Board Members in everyday decision is making, and enforcement in moving forward . Yes, as far as im concerned, i would foresee this being team ftc. We are very fortunate that the all of the nominees have significant expertise and some of it is very implement an make use of that. Okay thank you very much. Thank you. Senator, cruz. Thank you very much. Congratulations. To all four of the the nominees, and i spent two years at the ftc in early 2000s and it is a wonderful institution with tremendously talented career professionals. And with a terrific and long standing tradition of really effective bipartisan cooperation enforcing the antitrust laws, descend ising competition and protecting kiewrls so i want to commend each of you for willingness to serve and ill note a number of you we go back a long way. Mr. Phillips worked together with the five years doing really good work with senator corning been a pleasure working with you. Sorry to see you leave us but youre going on to do good things and mr. Simons and wilson, we were altogether with tim at the ftc, and it was a wonderful team. It was a pleasure working with the both of you. Each and every day for those two years you both did i think an extraordinary job during your tenure there. An i think we were blessed to serve around chairman, tim, who was quite frankly extraordinary. I dont think there has been another chairman before since that had the scope and breath and vision that tim brought to that job every day. So a question i wanted to ask especially to both of you because you worked with tim every day is what what positive lessons did you learn from your tenure working under chairman and how would you expect to implement those losses Going Forward should you be confirmed . Thank you, sthart. And let me just say i look very fondly become on those days and i was clearly by far by wide margin best job i ever had had and for all of the reasons that you just described. So one, one of the things most porpght things i learned from chairman was that its important to have your priorities to communicate them well so that the staff knows whats expected, what types of matters will turn into Enforcement Actions. And so the staff is busy and doing very productive things, and has very high moral thats an absolutely critical thing i think in terms of leading the ftc, and a thats my intent to follow that lead from chairman i would echo mr. Simons comment it was a pleasure to work with you and get to know you then and ive watched your career then with great interest and support. In terms of the things that i learned from chairman first of all i would echo what mr. Simons said, it is very important to have a positive agenda. If you go in, without a positive agenda you are reacting to the forces. And you are losing an opportunity to shape policy and to make important progress. Frankly in the mission of the agency second, i would note perhaps in a selfinterested way that chairman was very good at the listing all of the commissioners to help advance his positive agenda. I think its important to again, in a selfinterested way for mr. Simons, if confirmed, to capitalize on unique experiences and expertise that eep of us bring to the table and in the words of mr. Phillips that will be essentially a force multiplier for him and for the agency and third, i would note that chairman was excellent at advancing competition advocacy. She was ensuring that the ftc was a voice for free markets and for minimal regulation to the extent feasible but still consumers both at the federal level and at the state level. I think you as head of the officer policy and planning played a very Important Role in some of the those initiatives and i think what acting chairman has been doing is also very important in terms of economic liberty and working with days to understand that licensing requirements can impose and then taking that competition advocacy into global arena as well. Tim was there when we launched International Competition network and so having the ftc and department of justice together in a leadership role speaking into the International Arena supporting the sound enforcement of competition and Consumer Protection laws is critical for American Consumers and also for american companies. Mr. Simons what are your views on competition advocacy and the robust role the ftc has had in that in the past . I dont think i could do a veteran better justice to it than what they said. It is absolutely critical. Its had really tremendous effects historically, and i would expect that to continue into the the future. Account let me ask one final question which is a number of members of this committee are concerned about the scope and control of a big tech. That the size and power of it is unprecedented there was an article roongtly in esquire that pointed out that facebook and google together are worth 1. 3 trillion which you c