More than 20 center-right groups and activists have joined a coalition letter congratulating Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on earning the role of House Judiciary Chairman for the 118th Congress and calling for Biden Administration oversight. The letter highlights government-directed censorship of Americans online and oversight over the runaway Federal Trade Commission as two priorities for the House Judiciary Committee.
You can read the letter here or below:
The Honorable Jim Jordan
2056 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
February 16, 2023
Dear Chairman Jordan:
The Biden Administration, working hand-in-glove with Democrats in Congress, has fueled the largest growth of the federal government in generations. Republicans were elected to right the ship and hold the Biden Administration accountable to American taxpayers.
Congratulations on winning the House Judiciary gavel. Vigorous oversight into the FBI’s targeting of conservative voices and the runaway Federal Trade Commission should be at the top of the Republican agenda in the 118th Congress, and we stand ready to support and amplify your efforts in these areas.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has steadily released internal documents showing how the Biden FBI directed Twitter censors to delete since-verified posts bureaucrats deemed “misinformation” about the 2020 election and the COVID-19 pandemic, among other hot-button topics. The documents detail the lengths Twitter went to blacklist conservative voices at the direction of the Biden Administration, despite repeated public assurances from Twitter executives under oath that “shadowbanning” did not exist.
Government-directed censorship through social media platforms is an assault on the First Amendment. Your bill with Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), the “Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act” (H.R. 8752), would prevent the federal government from pressuring platforms into censoring American speech online.
As lawmakers consider your important legislation to solve this problem, Judiciary members should leave no stone unturned in holding Biden bureaucrats accountable for violating our First Amendment rights.
Additionally, we support vigorous oversight into Lina Khan’s FTC, the prime example of the Biden Administration’s economic overreach. Since Khan’s bait-and-switch confirmation in July 2021, Khan has been relentless in her quest to put every American company in a “Mother-May-I” relationship with the federal government.
Khan is an architect of a far-left movement that blames businesses for every progressive hobbyhorse under the sun, like income inequality, “social justice,” and climate change. Khan wants to use government power to force companies into pushing a progressive social agenda.
Right out of the gate, Khan ripped up guidance that focused the FTC’s antitrust enforcement on protecting consumers from harm. Khan rescinded the Vertical Merger Guidelines, a set of principles that the agency uses to assess the competitive effects of mergers and acquisitions, increasing uncertainty for the private sector. Khan’s FTC has even floated resuscitating the Great Depression-era “Robinson-Patman Act” that would raise prices during generation-high inflation.
Probing Khan’s FTC will be a target-rich environment. Staff morale and confidence have plummeted since Khan took the helm. Khan has relied extensively on unpaid consultants to perform agency work, six of which came from woke tech billionaire Pierre Omidyar’s network of interest groups and AstroTurf nonprofits.
The problems at Khan’s FTC were thrown into the spotlight this week with Republican FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson’s public resignation. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Wilson cites Khan’s “…disregard for the rule of law and due process” as the impetus for her resignation and outlines Khan’s “…abuse of power to achieve desired outcomes” with various examples. Wilson’s resignation leaves the FTC with zero Republican commissioners.
We commend the work you have already done to rein the Biden Administration in, including your probe into the FTC’s unpaid consultant program. We look forward to your tenure as House Judiciary Chairman and stand ready to amplify your continued success in holding the Biden Administration accountable to all Americans.
Sincerely,
Grover Norquist
President, Americans for Tax Reform
Dick Patten
President, American Business Defense Council
Steve Pociask
President/CEO, American Consumer Institute
Jeffrey Mazzella
President, Center for Individual Freedom
Curt Levey
President, Committee for Justice
Ashley Baker
Director of Public Policy, Committee for Justice
Jessica Melugin
Director of the Center for Technology and Innovation, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Yaël Ossowski
Deputy Director, Consumer Choice Center
James Erwin
Executive Director, Digital Liberty
George Landrith
President, Frontiers of Freedom
Heather R. Higgins
CEO, Independent Women’s Voice
Andrew Langer
President, Institute for Liberty
Sal Nuzzo
Senior Vice President, James Madison Institute
Charles Sauer
President, Market Institute
Doug Kellogg
Executive Director, Ohioans for Tax Reform
Tom Hebert
Executive Director, Open Competition Center
John Kay
Senior Vice President, Pelican Institute
Lorenzo Montanari
Executive Director, Property Rights Alliance
Bryan Bashur
Executive Director, Shareholder Advocacy Forum
Saulius “Saul” Anuzis
President, 60 Plus Association
James L. Martin
Founder/Chairman, 60 Plus Association
Patrick Hedger
Executive Director, Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Casey Given
Executive Director, Young Voices
CC: House Judiciary Committee Republicans