OTI Endorses Alvaro Bedoya for FTC

Today, OTI sent a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee urging a speedy confirmation for Alvaro Bedoya, whom President Biden nominated to the Federal Trade Commission in September. The committee has scheduled a Nov. 17 hearing for Professor Bedoya, who is the founding director of Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy & Technology. He has been nominated to a commissioner seat that is currently vacant, leaving the five-member agency in a 2-2 deadlock.

The following quote can be attributed to Joshua Stager, deputy director of broadband and competition policy at New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“Next week’s hearing comes at a critical juncture for the FTC, as the agency confronts a growing array of urgent consumer harms amid a commissioner vacancy. The FTC needs to be at full capacity with a commissioner who can hit the ground running. Professor Bedoya more than meets this moment. His expertise and dedication to the public interest are precisely what the American people need in an FTC commissioner. The Senate should confirm him without delay.”