FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mar. 19, 2025

CONTACT: Carter Dougherty, carter@ourfinancialsecurity.org 

Purging Democratic FTC Members Subverts Consumer Protection and Corporate Accountability. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Trump’s illegal termination of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the two Democratic Commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), violates a nearly century old Supreme Court precedent that prohibits the firing of FTC Commissioners over policy or political disagreements. 

“This power grab, like so many others by Trump, subverts the rule of law and undermines the effectiveness of independent agencies that are designed to be more insulated from political and business pressures in order to protect the public interest,” said Patrick Woodall, managing director of policy at Americans for Financial Reform. “The commissioners Trump has illegally removed have a record of cracking down on rip offs in car sales, strengthening reviews of big corporate mergers to evaluate their impacts on consumers and workers, cracking down on Big Tech abuses, and protecting workers rights.” 

“These are approaches that should be supported, not dismissed,” said Woodall. “Congress designed and the people deserve independent agencies that can protect the public interest and stand up to corporate power, free from political pressure and big business interference.”

These illegal firings also increase the threat directed at minority party commissioners at other independent agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and many more.

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