The American Economic Liberties Project (AELP) has criticized President Joe Biden for allegedly backtracking on his commitment to antitrust. The AELP points to the "modest" increase in the 2025 budget for the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Antitrust Division and the president's failure to contest cuts to a non-budgetary revenue source for the division as evidence of this wavering.
"The President has repeatedly emphasized, including in his State of the Union address, that robust antitrust enforcement is a key pillar of his economic agenda," said Nidhi Hegde, Interim Executive Director. "Unfortunately, this commitment is not reflected in the FY2025 budget for the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The modest increase to the Antitrust Division's budget in 2024 is helpful but fails to counter an effort by Congressional appropriators to effectively undo the 2022 Merger Filing Fees Modernization Act, a major turning point in adequately resourcing enforcers. If the president is serious about ‘bolstering antitrust enforcement,' as he has indicated, he cannot idly stand by as his agenda and his enforcers are undermined: the White House must be consistent and clear that corporate merger filing fees should go to antitrust enforcers, as Congress intended."
According to a press release by the AELP, an advocacy organization committed to corporate accountability and antitrust, the DOJ is currently 40% smaller than it was 45 years ago. The AELP highlighted several significant victories achieved by the agency's Antitrust Division since 2021, including thwarting the Simon & Schuster-Penguin Random House merger in 2022 and the JetBlue-Spirit merger in 2024. It also hinted at potential future triumphs with ongoing investigations into Ticketmaster, UnitedHealth Group, and Apple.
A White House fact sheet reveals that the proposed 2025 budget includes $288 million for the DOJ's Antitrust Division, marking a 56 percent increase since 2021. The budget also allocates $535 million for Federal Trade Commission antitrust enforcement, which is a 52 percent increase from 2021.
In a press release by House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler, it was noted that language in the FY24 Commerce, Science, and Justice appropriation bill prevents DOJ's Antitrust Division from using merger filing fees collected over $233 million. This cap is $45 million less than the original FY2024 Congressional Budget Office fee estimate of $278 million, thereby reducing funding required by the Antitrust Division for its efforts. Earlier this month, Nadler and over two dozen other members of Congress sent a letter urging House and Senate Appropriations to remove this language from the bill.
