SENATORS GRILL FTC NOMINEE MURIS ON MONOPOLY VIEWS

Several members of Senate Commerce Committee Wed. questioned Timothy Muris, nominee for FTC chmn., on writings he has published suggesting some merits to monopolies, lesson many previous govt. nominees have learned about personal paper trails. Still, Senate Commerce Committee Chmn. McCain (R-Ariz.) said Muris’s nomination had broad support in committee. McCain predicted nomination would be marked up next week and said he would push for floor vote before Memorial Day recess. Muris, who when not working in previous stints with the FTC had published many scholarly pieces, including controversial one titled “The FTC and the Law of Monopolization” in the Antitrust Law Journal last year, defended himself and his writings, even as Sen. Dorgan (D-N.D.) said: “I have some heartburn with some of the statements he’s made on monopolies.”

Essence of Muris’s scholarly arguments on monopolies is that there can be some consumer benefits to consolidated provision of services, providing there is at least some measure of competition in given market. However, Muris -- who was at FTC first as asst. to dir. of Office of Policy Planning & Evaluation 1974-1976, as consultant in 1977, as dir. of Bureau of Consumer Protection 1981- 1983, followed by Dir. of Bureau of Competition 1983-1985 said: “It’s clear under the law that it’s hard to bring a monopolization case” at FTC, Muris said. As for his writings, he said he was most concerned with Dept. of Justice under Clinton Administration that began “a very large increase” in antitrust investigations “aimed at sending a signal [to industries] that was inappropriate.” He assured committee members that he “would have no hesitation to bring a good [monopolization] case” as FTC chmn.

Some Democratic committee members still had concerns. Senate Commerce Committee ranking Democrat Hollings (S.D.) said “your writings suggest monopolies are good things.” Sen. Wyden (D-Ore.) said some of Muris’s writings suggested more support for companies than for consumers, odd position for head of FTC, which he said “is one of the most important places in government for the consumer.” Dorgan said “we need a Federal Trade Commission and a chairman to be very aggressive on these issues.”

Muris agreed FTC played critical role in protecting consumers, but differed on how that should be done. In his written materials supplied to committee, he said “consumers are best served by a freely functioning market, as opposed to extensive government regulation. The market needs governing rules, however, and the antitrust and consumer protection laws that the Federal Trade Commission enforces provide such rules. On occasion, performance of the market can be improved through government regulation, and in evaluating such occasions, the benefits and costs of the regulation should be considered carefully.”

Muris, prof. at George Mason U. School of Law, in recent years, has consulted with Intel, Disney and United Cable TV, among others. While he didn’t itemize the size of his donations, Muris said that in recent years he had given at least $500 to the campaigns of Sen. Gramm (R-Tex.), Rep. Kolbe (R-Ariz.), President Bush. Muris said his investments were mostly in “widely diversified” mutual funds and listed no individual stock holdings. He was an economic adviser to Bush’s campaign and served as policy coordinator for the Bush-Cheney Transition Team.