![]() Biden quelled that tug-of-war by simply not appointing anyone to the position, which remains vacant (though rumor has it that might not be the case for long). ![]() Davies withdrew, and anyone-but-Kanter forces migrated to onetime Joe Lieberman ally Jonathan Sallet. Early in the administration, there was some jockeying over the position, with the party’s left flank pushing for Jonathan Kanter, a plaintiff’s lawyer who assisted in the cases against Facebook and Google, while Attorney General Merrick Garland wanted Facebook lawyer Susan Davies, as the Prospect reported. And as it stands currently, few of them are in a position to enact Biden’s orders, because Biden himself hasn’t staffed those agencies with his own personnel.īiden’s push for increased scrutiny of tech monopolies (including consideration of even unwinding past mergers), and his call for patent policy reform to avoid an “anticompetitive extension of market power beyond the scope of granted patents,” is currently handicapped by the fact that he still hasn’t nominated an assistant attorney general to head up the Antitrust Division. As is often the nature of executive orders, Biden has recommended that various agencies-the FTC, the FCC, the DOJ-carry out these programs the agencies themselves, which are helmed by both willing Democrats and obstructionist Republicans, have to do the carrying out. Pay close attention to the language, though. And the overall thrust of the order, determined to protect workers, consumers, and entrepreneurs from the hazards of consolidated corporate interests, signals a dramatic change from the last 40 years of policy in Washington. ![]() All of that, plus recommendations on patent law, surveillance, and occupational licensing are in Biden’s executive order, and more. ![]() And the recommendation of reinstatement of the exceedingly popular net neutrality, vanquished by the Trump administration, is perhaps the biggest headline-grabber of them all. The recommendation to drastically curtail the use of noncompete clauses, which were once used for corporate executives but now hamstring some 60 million American workers in low-wage sectors like janitorial services, represents a major transformation for the labor market as well. Biden’s recommendation on right to repair is a potential game changer for farmers, who are beholden to equipment manufacturers like John Deere and Caterpillar that functionally forbid them from repairing their own tractors, as well as for gamers seeking to modify their consumer electronics. In one omnibus statement, Biden called on the Justice Department, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and other agencies to implement 72 specific provisions meant to encourage competition, raise wages, and weaken the force of monopolies in the American economy.Ī number of those provisions mark substantial developments, and would be individually notable on their own. On Friday, President Biden announced a comprehensive executive order that may amount to the single most consequential day of his young presidency. President Biden hands out a pen after signing an executive order aimed at promoting competition in the economy, in the State Dining Room of the White House, July 9, 2021.
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