U.S. Senate panel sends three FTC nominations to full Senate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee voted on Wednesday to send three nominations for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to the full Senate.

Lawmakers voted by a voice vote to send to the Senate floor the renomination of Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democrat, along with the nominations of two Republicans, Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak, the solicitors general of Virginia and Utah, respectively, a congressional aide said.

THE TAKE

If confirmed by the Senate, as expected, adding the two Republicans will not change the balance of power at the five-member FTC, which also enforces antitrust law. It currently has a Democratic chair, Lina Khan, and two Democratic commissioners.

CONTEXT

The agency, which recently sued Amazon.com for allegedly violating antitrust law, is considering mergers such as Kroger's plan to buy rival grocer Albertsons.

In a hearing in mid-September, the three nominees agreed that the deceptive use of artificial intelligence should be a priority for the FTC in a show of bipartisanship on the popular issue.

The agreement was striking given previous partisan battles at the agency. A previous Republican FTC commissioner, Christine Wilson, quit this year and sharply criticized agency leadership.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Jonathan Oatis)