Lina Khan Reviews NYC Executive Authority Ahead of Mamdani Administration

In an interview with Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor, Khan explained that she is scrutinizing the breadth of the city’s executive authorities to help the incoming administration position itself to act swiftly. She noted that her portfolio includes advising on economic policy and staffing decisions, as well as preparing the ground for what she described as an ambitious affordability agenda. “Coming from the FTC, I’m going to be especially focused on things like, how do we make sure that we have a full accounting of all of the laws and authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy?” she said in the interview, which Bloomberg reported was taped last week and will air on Nov. 23.

Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, campaigned on sweeping social programs, including free citywide bus service, universal childcare for children as young as six months, and a rent freeze on more than one million stabilized apartments. The platform hinges on roughly $10 billion in new revenue, which he has said would come largely from higher taxes on corporations and wealthy New Yorkers. But as Bloomberg noted, those tax decisions fall to Albany, where Governor Kathy Hochul has said she has no intention of raising taxes — and has also questioned the financial feasibility of eliminating bus fares, partly because those funds back $17 billion in Metropolitan Transit Authority farebox bonds.

Related: NY’s Mamdani Names Former FTC Chair Lina Khan to Transition Team

Khan emphasized that while major elements of Mamdani’s agenda will require cooperation with state officials, the mayor-elect should still have meaningful unilateral power. “A lot of what he is going to be looking to deliver is going to be requiring working closely with other institutional actors, be it the governor, be it the legislature, but he should also have a lot of ability to do things unilaterally, and so we want to make sure he has a good sense of what that is,” she said, according to Bloomberg’s transcript. A person familiar with her work added that she is reviewing recent and pending laws related to algorithmic price discrimination, surveillance pricing, and junk fees.

Khan’s involvement has already drawn pushback from figures in the financial sector. Hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb — who opposed Mamdani’s candidacy and donated to efforts supporting Mayor Eric Adams and later Andrew Cuomo — sharply criticized her on social media. “I would hire this person if I were dead set on crafting Soviet style centralized control regime, instituting repressive policies and destroying the economy,” he wrote on X. “But we should give @ZohranKMamdani a chance.”

Khan became the youngest FTC chair in history at age 32 when she was appointed by President Joe Biden. During her tenure, she became a focal point of criticism from major corporations and investors after high-profile FTC losses in merger cases involving Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. In her final weeks at the agency, she revived the long-dormant Robinson-Patman Act in a lawsuit targeting alcohol distributor Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, a move Bloomberg reported as part of her broader effort to expand antitrust scrutiny.

Source: Bloomberg