Denver — Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, alongside 26 Senate colleagues, called on President Donald Trump to reverse the terminations of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya. The Trump administration terminated the two Democratic FTC commissioners on Tuesday, March 18.
“This action contradicts long standing Supreme Court precedent, undermines Congress’s constitutional authority to create bipartisan, independent commissions, and upends more than 110 years of work at the FTC to protect consumers from deceptive practices and monopoly power,” wrote Bennet, Hickenlooper, and the senators. “We urge you to rescind these dismissals so the FTC can get back to the people’s work.”
The FTC consists of five commissioners – each nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. In their letter, the senators argue that the Trump Administration’s termination of the commissioners violated the FTC’s independence. Long-standing Supreme Court precedent protects FTC commissioners from being terminated by the president over policy disagreements.
Bennet has consistently fought to reinstate federal employees terminated in accordance with President Trump’s directives. Earlier this month, Bennet called on Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek to address the Trump Administration’s plans to purge the Social Security workforce. In February, Bennet called on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to immediately reinstate the eight inspectors general President Trump terminated at the start of his term. Additionally, Bennet called on U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Doug Burgum to reinstate 2,300 terminated DOI employees. Bennet also called on U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins to reinstate 3,400 United States Forest Service employees after the agency enacted mass layoffs and joined Senate colleagues to urge the Trump Administration to exempt seasonal firefighters from the federal hiring freeze. He also called on Secretary Rollins to address mass employee terminations at USDA. In February, Bennet also called on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Doug Collins to immediately reinstate the more than 1,000 VA employees terminated that month. He also pushed the Office of Personnel Management to address concerns about the Trump Administration’s blanket resignation offers to federal employees. Additionally, Bennet introduced an amendment to the Senate Fiscal Year 2025 budget resolution to reinstate 5,500 recently terminated federal public lands staff.
In addition to Bennet and Hickenlooper, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) signed the letter.
The text of the letter is available HERE and below.
Dear President Trump,
On March 18, 2025 you announced your intention to fire Commissioner Slaughter and Commissioner Bedoya from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). This action contradicts long standing Supreme Court precedent, undermines Congress’s constitutional authority to create bipartisan, independent commissions, and upends more than 110 years of work at the FTC to protect consumers from deceptive practices and monopoly power. We urge you to rescind these dismissals so the FTC can get back to the people’s work.
Congress established the FTC in 1914 as an independent agency made up of bipartisan, multi-member, expert commissioners who are tasked with protecting consumers. In 2024 alone, the FTC used this authority to return more than $330 million to consumers, while simultaneously blocking anticompetitive mergers and challenging monopoly power that can result in higher prices, fewer choices, and less opportunity for American consumers, workers, and small businesses. The FTC has consistently carried out this mandate as a bipartisan commission under Republican and Democratic administrations.
When establishing the FTC, Congress lawfully exercised its power to establish a bipartisan, multi-member, expert commission and to shield that commission from political pressure by allowing commissioners to serve 7-year terms and limiting the President’s power to remove commissioners only “for inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.” Under the law, as you are aware, the President retains the sole authority to nominate new commissioners and to appoint the Chair of the Commission. The President may also appoint a new Chair among the sitting commissioners at any time.
Ninety years ago, the Supreme Court held that Congress’s authority to create bipartisan, multi-member, expert commissions—and specifically the FTC—“cannot well be doubted” because “it is quite evident that one who holds his office only during the pleasure of another cannot be depended upon to maintain an attitude of independence. . . .” In a 2020 decision involving whether Congress could insulate the single director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from at-will removal by the President, the Supreme Court declined to revisit this precedent, finding important differences between the CFPB and the FTC, including that the FTC has multiple expert members to ensure the Commission retains relevant expertise at all times, that each President can influence the makeup of the Commission by nominating new members and appointing the Chair (as you have already done), and that the Commission is funded through the traditional appropriations process that the President may influence.
As such, the structure of the FTC does not undermine executive authority and is well within Congress’s power to establish independent agencies tasked with protecting Americans from harmful business practices, fraud, and outright corruption. As Commissioners duly appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya must be allowed to continue their work at the Commission.