FTC Chair Lifts Agency Public Speaking Ban

On Thursday the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC)Chair Lina Khan, removed restrictions that prevented staff from participating in most conferences and other public events, ending an unpopular policy enacted in January of last year amid controversial conversations over changes to official antitrust policy, according to a copy of an email viewed by The Information.

In an email, Lina Khan’s chief of staff, Jen Howard, took blame for the unpopular policy, and announced its end.  “I deeply regret that I made people feel like they do not have our trust and respect. Nothing could be further from the truth,” Howard said.

Related: FTC’s Staffers Announced A “Moratorium On Public Events”

Khan’s chief of staff, Jen Howard, announced a “moratorium on public events and press outreach” Last year in a June 22 email sent to more than two dozen of the FTC’s top staffers.

“For the time being I am putting a moratorium on staff participating in external events,” Howard wrote. The message was sent to the head of the FTC’s major offices, including those who oversee all of the agency’s economics, antitrust lawyers, and consumer protection attorneys.

Khan has begun a fundamental revamp of the commission, rescinding policies designed to limit its legal powers, changing the way it makes decisions and promising to rewrite the statements which underpin antitrust enforcement in the US. Supporters say she is putting in the foundations for a second trustbusting age.

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