The Federal Trade Commission is back up to its full strength Wednesday after the Senate voted 95-1 to confirm Terrell McSweeny to be the third Democratic commissioner on the five-member agency, giving the Democrats on the commission a majority. Having five commissioners is critical to merger rulings, which require a majority vote to block or intervene in a transaction.
Mike O’Rielly, the GOP nominee for the FCC, and Terrell McSweeny, the Democratic nominee for the Federal Trade Commission, couldn’t be more different. The contrasts were on display during the Senate commerce committee nomination hearing, the first major step in filling out two agencies that have been short-handed for several months.
