'I Thought 50% Was Bad': Ashley Hinson Grills FTC Chair On Agency's In-Office Attendance

7 months ago

During a House Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) spoke about occupancy at FTC offices.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you for that statement, Mr. Cartwright. We now recognize Ms. Hinson for any questions she may have. Thank you, Mr.

00:05Chairman and Ranking Member Hoyer for holding the hearing today and Chair Khan,

00:08I appreciate you coming before us today to talk about the FTC's mission. I want to go back to a topic

00:16that's several of my colleagues have already brought up and that's the CARS rule. Back in January,

00:20obviously, you issued that it would exclusively regulate motor vehicle dealers and according to the Commission, the rule is aimed at protecting consumers.

00:28But it does specifically exempt purchases of motorcycles, scooters, electric bicycles,

00:34and several other types of vehicles, all of which are bought by everyday consumers. And from

00:40conversations with my constituents, there remains a little bit of a lack of clarity on this rule,

00:44whether or not it applies to heavy-duty trucks, which I think we can all agree are not bought by

00:48your everyday consumer. There's a big difference between buying a cement mixer and a minivan that

00:54you're going to cart your kids around in, right? I think we can all agree those are two different

00:57types of customers. But under one reading of your rule, America's over 3,800 medium and heavy-duty

01:03truck dealers, including 92 in my home state of Iowa, would incur all the costs of that new

01:09regulation, despite only selling to other businesses and not direct to consumers. So

01:14nowhere in this regulation does it mention heavy-duty trucks, how they differ significantly

01:19from light-duty vehicles. So was it the FTC's intention to regulate commercial truck dealers

01:26who are selling to business customers in this rule? Let me take that back to our team. There

01:30really should not be any confusion about the scope of coverage here. So let us follow up with you to

01:36be very clear about that. Because it is, this rule is absolutely silent. So I would like clarification

01:40on whether this applies to the purchase of heavy-duty vehicles specifically, along with,

01:46you know, you've got all these other vehicles that you've exempted. There's seven other types

01:50that are exempted in the rule. So I think, while I'm pleased that there's a little pause on it

01:55right now, I'd like to see it go away entirely. But at the very, very least, we need clarification,

02:00because a lot of these businesses are kind of caught in that silence on the rule. So will you

02:05commit to me to follow up with clarification on the rule? Yes, happy to do that. And just so you

02:09know, the way that we determined what's covered and what's not is basically based on our record,

02:16where we see complaints, where we've seen persistent issues with deceptive conduct. And so

02:22for the types of vehicles that were exempted, that was in part because we didn't have as

02:26robust a record. And so I'm happy to follow up with you on this. Yeah. Because as I'm looking

02:31at the Federal Register, you know, there is wording here, other commenters, including Vehicle

02:36Association commenters, claimed that they should be excluded from coverage generally, contending

02:40such dealerships operate differently. So I would argue this is one of those cases, and so we

02:45definitely need the clarification there. Another concern for my constituents, and one that I know

02:49you and I discussed before, is the telework policy of federal agencies. And that includes

02:55the FTC. I think it's critically important that employees who are in charge of regulating American

03:00businesses are consistently showing up to work. Can you confirm that the FTC's current policy is

03:07for staff to come into the office twice per pay period or the equivalent of once per week?

03:12That's right. The current OPM guidance recommends twice the pay period, and so we're conforming to

03:18that. What is the occupancy rate for FTC facilities right now? So for headquarters, it's around 22,

03:2623 percent. Across the federal government, the average for headquarters is around 25 percent,

03:32so we're, you know, just a little below that. Well, we had the IRS commissioner in here last

03:36week, and I thought 50 percent was bad, and I'd like to see that number go higher, because as

03:41you're looking at the raises that you're asking for for people, $30 million in increase to support

03:48salaries at the commission, do you believe that that's a good value for taxpayers when those folks

03:54are not in the office? Does it have a bottom line effect on the quality of work that people are

03:58doing if they're not in the office? So I think that's an important question. So far, we haven't

04:04seen any compromise of productivity. In fact, productivity is sky high. People are working

04:11around the clock. I know we owe you all a report on our telework policies and how that's

04:17affecting productivity and recruitment and retention, and so we'll be happy to get that

04:22back to you. But honestly, so far, productivity has been off the charts. What are your metrics

04:28for measuring that? So we look at a range of metrics, including how much money we're getting

04:33back to people, including how many investigations we're doing, how many lawsuits we're filing.

04:38For me, a big priority has been, let's not just, you know, focus on net number of lawsuits,

04:44but let's make sure each of these lawsuits is actually effective. And so we're going after

04:49bigger players whose practices affect more Americans. We're looking upstream to make sure

04:54we're targeting the root culprits rather than just playing whack-a-mole. And so by all of those

05:00metrics, we're having an impact, right? And we hear businesses, including in the M&A space,

05:05note that we are achieving deterrence. Illegal deals are not being proposed, and from an

05:11enforcement perspective, that's a good thing. Well, I'll just close, Mr. Chairman, by saying

05:16that as I was flying out the other day, I was approached by a Cedar Rapids police officer at

05:20the airport who was complaining about federal government employees not showing up to work when

05:24they have to be on the job to do that. So I think that we need to get that number up. We'd like to

05:29see a good return on investment for taxpayers, and I think that means showing up to the office

05:32if we're paying for those buildings as well. So thank you, Chairwoman, and I look forward

05:36to following up. Mr. Chair, thank you.

'I Thought 50% Was Bad': Ashley Hinson Grills FTC Chair On Agency's In-Office Attendance

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