Senate Confirms Meador for GOP FTC Seat Amid Furor Over Democrats' Firings
The Senate confirmed Republican Mark Meador as an FTC commissioner Thursday on a party-line 50-46 vote amid fierce opposition from chamber Democrats over President Donald Trump’s disputed March firing of Democratic Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter (see 2503190057). Bedoya and Slaughter are suing to overturn their dismissal. Democrats are concerned that Trump may seek to fire the FCC’s two Democrats or refuse to name someone to replace party-affiliated Commissioner Geoffrey Starks, who plans to resign this spring (see 2503180067).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
Meador said on X that he's “deeply humbled to be confirmed by the Senate to serve on the" FTC, and it's "time to get to work!” He will take the seat of former Democratic Chair Lina Khan, who resigned Jan. 31.
Five Senate Commerce Committee Democrats who voted to advance Meador on March 12 (see 2503120069), before Trump's FTC firings, opposed him on the floor Thursday: Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Jacky Rosen of Nevada. Senate Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on Wednesday night cited the FTC Democrats’ firing as the main reason she would vote against Meador. That action left the FTC “with only Republican commissioners and [destroyed] the agency’s long-standing independence,” she said in a floor speech. Before the vote, Public Knowledge urged the Senate not to confirm Meador until Trump reinstates Bedoya and Slaughter: “Confirming him now rewards President Trump’s unlawful behavior and jeopardizes” the FTC’s “important work.”
Cantwell said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1935 Humphrey’s Executor v. U.S. precedent, which allows the president to fire commissioners at independent agencies only for cause, has helped the FTC flourish “as a consumer protection watchdog independent of the influence of the president. Until now.” With the Trump administration calling for the high court to overturn Humphrey’s Executor, Cantwell criticized Meador for declining “to defend the FTC’s need to remain independent. He also declined to address [DOJ's] reversal of position” on Humphrey’s Executor and “would not agree to follow the law if given an order by” Trump “not to do so,” Cantwell said.