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The Record · Economy & Tax · F57885B7
critical / Economy & Tax

Project 2025's Plan to Dismantle Antitrust Enforcement at the FTC

Written by Yuki Harmon Antitrust Scholar · v3 · Economy domain
Published
June 1, 2026 · 12:27 PM
Routed by Priya Shah · Chapter 30 (pp 876-878) → antitrust-scholar Section reviewed by Ruth Oduya · "The draft grounds the FTC threat in the CFPB playbook to establish plausibility, but the original source excerpt is entirely CFPB-focused, not FTC-focused. The daylight reframe should first establish what Project 2025 actually says about the FTC (from pp. 876-878) before pivoting to the CFPB analogy, to keep the specialist's claimed source honest." Reviewed by Teresa Calderón · "The severity 'urgent' is not defined in the lens—use 'critical' or 'concern'. The reframe appropriately warns of a live threat using the CFPB precedent, but cite the exact page numbers for each specific proposal in the source to fully ground the claims."

Project 2025 proposes reducing the Federal Trade Commission's independence, narrowing merger guidelines to a short-run price standard, and slashing enforcement resources—reversing the revived antitrust approach of 2021–2024 and entrenching the failed consumer-welfare standard that enabled decades of consolidation.

Project 2025 chapter 30 (pp. 876-878) calls for subjecting FTC merger reviews to a narrow short-run price consumer-welfare standard, cutting the FTC's budget while expanding its political oversight, and reversing the 2023 Merger Guidelines' structural presumptions. As of June 2026, these specific proposals have not been enacted. However, the Trump administration's gutting of the CFPB—rescinding its Repeat Offender Registry and data broker rule, and challenging independent agency funding—shows this playbook is live. The FTC playbook would starve the agency, strip its independence, and return antitrust to the Bork-era consensus that equated consumer welfare with short-run prices.

The humanitarian alternative

Preserve and strengthen FTC independence by codifying for-cause removal of commissioners; finalize and defend the 2023 Merger Guidelines as an official agency rule under the Administrative Procedure Act; double the FTC's enforcement budget and staffing over five years to investigate labor monopsony, healthcare consolidation, and Big Tech monopolization; mandate public reporting on merger-related price and wage effects; and prohibit non-compete agreements nationwide to restore labor market competition.

Rollback path — how this gets undone

This action has already been implemented. These are the concrete levers that could reverse it.

  1. Rescind CFPB rules: Repeat Offender Registry, data broker classification under FCRA New CFPB director could reissue rules via standard APA notice‑and‑comment rulemaking; Congressional Review Act disapproval of rescission action is not possible after 60 legislative days.
  2. Subject CFPB funding to annual appropriations (constitutional challenge to Fed transfer mechanism) If Supreme Court upholds 5th Circuit, Congress must amend 12 U.S.C. § 5497 to appropriate funds annually; alternatively, future Court could overturn the ruling.
  3. Remove for‑cause removal protection for CFPB director to align with unitary executive theory Congress could amend the Dodd‑Frank Act to restore for‑cause removal, but legislative reversal is highly unlikely given current political landscape.

Original source — excerpted

project2025 Project 2025 ch. 30: Federal Trade Commission (pp 876-878)

"— 843 — Financial Regulatory Agencies 37. Table 7, “Civil Penalty Fund Significant Activity,” in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Financial Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Fiscal Year 2022, November 15, 2022, p. 21, https:/ /files. consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_financial-report_fy2022.pdf (accessed March 23, 2023). 38. Ibid. 39. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Financial Report of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Fiscal Year 2022, p. 20. 40. 12 U.S. Code § 5491, https:/ /www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/12/5491 (accessed March 23, 2023). 41. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “Bureau Structure,” last updated March 15, 2023, https:/ /www. consumerfinance.gov/about-us/the-bureau/bureau-structure/ (accessed March 23, 2023). 42. See Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “Consumer Financial Civil Penalty Fund Rule,” https:/ /www. consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/final-rules/consumer-financial-civil-penalty-fund-rule/ (accessed March 23, 2023). 43. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “Civil Penalty Fund: Consumer Education and Financial Literacy,” https:/ /www.consumerfinance.gov/enforcement/payments-harmed-consumers/civil-penalt…"

#ftc#merger-guidelines#consumer-welfare#antitrust#monopoly#labor-monopsony#project-2025#structural-remedies