US NEWS: U.S. Senate will confirm Bedoya as FTC commissioner

WASHINGTON, April 24 – Alvaro Bedoya will be confirmed by the US Federal Trade Commission this week, Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday, giving the party enough votes to investigate Democrat oil companies that “consume” consumers with high fuel. prices.

Deputy President Kamala Harris will be on hand to break the Senate 50-50 agreement on Bedoya’s appointment, which will give Democrats a 3-2 majority among FTC commissioners. Currently, there are two Democrats and two Republicans, leading to deadlocks.

“He (Bedoya) will give Lina Khan and the FTC the majority to pursue oil companies and then pursue logging,” Schumer told a news conference in New York City. Khan, a Democrat, is the chairman of the FTC.

Bedoya, a visiting professor of law at the University of Georgetown, was a former senior adviser to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on privacy, technology and law.

Petrol prices average more than $ 4 per liter nationally and are the highest in the western provinces.

That increases to about $ 2.90 nationally last year, according to the American Automobile Association.

The American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil and natural gas companies, states that oil prices are determined by supply and demand, not by individual oil companies.

However, Schumer blamed the “war profit” of the business following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.”

Meanwhile, Schumer has accused oil companies of spending billions of dollars on buying stocks, a move he said would advise investors “but it does nothing to increase productivity, increase (oil) production or anything else.”

The law, which will also be unveiled this week, will give the FTC more power to protect consumers, Schumer said.

Democratic Alliance Senator Elizabeth Warren, interviewed on CNN on Sunday, has called for the enactment of a law that expands the FTC’s mandate to counter inflation.