Chairman of FTC Plans to Resign
The White House on Tuesday nominated a former Justice Department official to succeed Timothy J. Muris, who said he planned to resign as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.
Deborah Platt Majoras, who was the No. 2 official in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, was among six names sent by President Bush to the Senate for review. If confirmed, Majoras would serve the balance of Muris’ term, which expires in 2008.
It was unclear what motivated Muris, a former antitrust professor and moderate conservative, to resign as FTC chairman. Under his direction, the agency introduced the popular “do-not-call” list that puts phone numbers off-limits to telemarketers.
William J. Baer, a former FTC official who had lunch with Muris on Tuesday, said Muris did not talk like a man who was forced out.
“He told me that ‘I’ve had a good four years and it’s time to move on,’ ” Baer said. “And if you think about timing ... the opportunity to get [Majoras] confirmed is in the next two or three months before the election.”
Majoras rose to prominence three years ago when she helped negotiate the Bush administration’s settlement of its antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. She also argued the appeal of that case in federal appeals court before leaving office in January to enter private law practice in Washington.
However, the settlement that Majoras brokered with Microsoft -- which enabled the company to escape harsh antitrust punishment, including a possible breakup -- did not endear her to consumer groups or the state attorneys general who had joined the Justice Department in pursuing the software giant.
“The departing chair is going to be missed here in California,” said Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for California Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer. “We had an excellent relationship and we hope to have an equally effective and productive relationship” with Majoras.
Some consumer group representatives were less diplomatic and vowed Tuesday to oppose her nomination.
“She will not be a consumer-friendly chairman,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of Center for Digital Democracy, a media watchdog group in Washington. “Based on the Microsoft settlement and other matters ... it seems she has always been on the side of big corporate interests.”
In past speeches, Majoras has indicated that she is not a doctrinaire antitrust enforcer and believes that cases are often governed by specific facts, not hard-and-fast rules.
“Antitrust analysis is highly fact-specific,” Majoras said in a Feb. 8, 2003, speech at the FTC. “ ... We must constantly remind ourselves of it, lest we get hijacked by naked theory. We cannot appropriately enforce the federal antitrust laws or even advocate or set sound competition policy if we do not carefully examine the facts presented by the markets at issue.”
Majoras’ nomination was expected and comes little more than a month after the White House announced the nomination of film industry lobbyist Jon Liebowitz to succeed departing FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson, a Democrat. Liebowitz is vice president of congressional affairs for the Motion Picture Assn. of America.
During his three-year tenure, Muris drew fire from some members of Congress and public interest groups for attempting to broker a deal with the Justice Department that would have changed the way the two antitrust agencies review media and technology company mergers.
Before joining the FTC, Muris taught antitrust law at George Mason University in Virginia.
FTC spokeswoman Nancy Ness Judy said Muris was not available for comment. She said Muris would stay at the FTC until his successor was confirmed.
