Trump Nominates Joseph Simmons as Chairman of Federal Trade Commission

WASHINGTON, October 19, 2017 — The Federal Trade Commission will get two new members if President Donald Trump has his way, as the White House announced his intent to nominate Democrat Rohit Chopra and Republican Joseph Simmons to fill the open seats on the five-member body.

Chopra currently serves as a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, is a former Assistant Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, where he served from 2010 through 2015 before being appointed as a Special Advisor to the Secretary of Education.

If confirmed by the Senate, Chopra — who holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a Bachelor’s from Harvard, will only serve until September of 2019.

Simmons, a partner at the Paul, Weiss law firm, is a former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition who served during the George W. Bush Administration, will serve a full seven year term if confirmed by the Senate. During his previous stint at the FTC, Simmons’ Bureau initiated more than 100 investigations which resulted in more non-merger enforcement actions in a single year than in the previous two decades. He also co-developed the “Critical Loss Analysis” market definition technique currently in use by both the FTC and the Department of Justice in their respective merger guidelines.

(Paul, Weiss photo of Joseph Simmons.)