WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump fired the two Democratic commissioners at the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday.
Here is information on them.
Alvaro Bedoya
Bedoya was sworn in May 2022 as an FTC commissioner after being nominated by President Joe Biden.
He is a founding director of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy & Technology and former chief counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law.
Bedoya noted in his statement detailing his firing that “whether you are a Republican or Democrat or someone who is so disgusted with Washington you can barely watch the news, the FTC has worked for you.”
His FTC biography says he helped pass laws to stop the abuse of face surveillance technology and the unrestricted sharing of people’s information with national security and law enforcement agencies, and that much of his work on privacy “focuses on its importance to unpopular religious and ethnic minorities.”
Bedoya is a naturalized citizen born in Peru who graduated from Harvard University and has a law degree from Yale Law School. He has practiced law at Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr.
Rebecca Kelly Slaughter
Slaughter joined the FTC May 2018 during Trump’s first term. Before joining the FTC, she served as chief counsel to Democratic leader Senator Charles Schumer.
Her FTC biography says she is “outspoken about the growing threats to competition and the broad abuse of consumers’ data.”
She argued for the commission’s independence in her statement after she was fired, saying: “The reason that the FTC can be so effective for the American people is because of its independence and because its commissioners serve across political parties and ideologies.”
Before working for the government, she was a lawyer at Sidley Austin. Slaughter received an undergraduate degree from Yale University and a law degree from Yale Law School.
(Reporting by Chris Sanders; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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