Klobuchar, Colleagues Call For Restoration of Antitrust Division Funding

Letter

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"We write with regard to the Commerce, Science, and Justice (CJS) appropriation language released on March 3, 2024, which undermines the Congressional intent codified by the passage of the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, a bill originally introduced in the Senate by Senators Grassley and Klobuchar and in the House by Representatives Neguse and Spartz. The newly-released CJS bill caps appropriations to the Antitrust Division at $233 million for FY2024, regardless of fees collected. This is $45 million below the original FY2024 Congressional Budget Office fee estimate of $278 million and fails to provide any additional appropriations for non-fee-generating work, such as criminal price fixing cases and crucial monopolization cases, including the Antitrust Division's challenges to Google's search and online advertising monopolies.

It was Congress's intent, and consistent with decades-old precedent to allow the Antitrust Division to retain the increase in merger filing fees. Ahead of Wednesday's vote in the House of Representatives, we urge appropriations leadership to (1) strike the phrase "not to exceed $233,000,000 to be derived from" from the first proviso of the bill text regarding Antitrust Division funding, and strike the final proviso that states the same, and (2) strike all but the first sentence of the conference report section regarding Antitrust Division funding."

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