Alvaro Bedoya is confirmed to the Federal Trade Commission

The Senate on May 11 voted to confirm law professor Alvaro Bedoya to serve on the Federal Trade Commission, solidifying a Democratic majority at the agency that will enable FTC Chair Lina Khan to move on her ambitious agenda to rein in Big Tech’s power. Fifty senators voted in favor while 50 voted against. Vice President Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in her role as president of the Senate. Bedoya’s confirmation breaks a months-long deadlock at the FTC, the federal watchdog tasked with overseeing competition and consumer protection in key industries, including Silicon Valley. While the agency was split along party lines, Khan had to negotiate compromises with Republican commissioners who disagreed with some of her signature policy positions. Now that Khan again has a majority, she is widely expected to pursue more aggressive cases against tech giants and new regulations governing privacy and competition in the digital economy. Bedoya takes a seat formerly held by Rohit Chopra, who left the agency in September 2021 when he was confirmed to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Bedoya’s background positions him to be a strong ally of Khan, especially in enacting more stringent data privacy protections. He is the founder of Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, and he has led research into how the government’s use of facial recognition and other surveillance tools threatens civil rights.