{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://ellison.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ellison-introduces-merger-retrospective-act", "Rep. Ellison Introduces Merger Retrospective Act", "2017-12-04", "2017", "2017-12", "Democrat", "House", "MN", "Keith Ellison", "E000288", "ellison.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON\u2014Reps. Keith Ellison (D-MN), David Cicilline (D-RI), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Rick Nolan (D-MN), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and\u00a0Ra\u00fal\u00a0Grijalva (D-AZ) this morning introduced the Merger Retrospective Act to curb the harmful effects of corporate monopolization on working people. Rep. Ellison\u2019s bill attempts to illuminate\u00a0the impact of corporate mergers\u00a0on the American economy by directing the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to assess each merger\u2019s effect on price, quality, and availability of products and services at the merged firm,\u00a0as well as employment reduction and worker compensation.\n\u201cWhen big companies merge, workers can be laid off in the thousands, prices can go up, and quality can go down for goods and services at the new firm. Decades of lax merger review and antitrust enforcement have helped bring us to a new Gilded Age, where inequality is higher than ever, and a handful of massive corporations control outsized wealth and political power at the expense of the rest of us.\u00a0\u00a0This legislation is aimed at reversing a decades-long trend toward concentrating power in our economy.\u201d said Rep. Keith Ellison.\n\u201cThe American people deserve the truth about how mergers affect workers\u2019 wages, layoffs, and lawsuits,\u201d\u00a0said Rep. Rick Nolan, co-chair of the House Antitrust Caucus.\u00a0\u201cThis legislation is an important step forward towards ensuring transparency in the corporate sector and developing a worker-first approach to American business.\u201d\n\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be a PHD economist to understand that increasing levels of corporate concentration are bad for Americans. When airlines and telecom firms merge, they enrich a handful of executives at a cost of lost jobs, stagnant wages, and reduced service for customers. Monopoly power in big business has been a major cause of income inequality and the hollowing out of the middle class. The Merger Retrospective Act is an important first step towards understanding the true cost of corporate consolidation,\u201d said Rep. Ro Khanna, co-chair of the House Antitrust Caucus.\n\u201cCongressman Ellison\u2019s bill is an important step towards improving the effectiveness and transparency of merger policy.\u00a0 It would have the agencies regularly evaluate the effects of their merger enforcement actions on prices and other outcomes.\u00a0 They would then report on those effects as well as on their overall enforcement record.\u00a0 This will help make merger policy better targeted, which will be better for consumers, better for businesses, and better for the agencies as well,\u201d said John E. Kwoka, renowned antitrust economist and the author of Mergers, Merger Control and Remedies.\n\u201cThis bill aims to provide Americans with\u00a0\u00a0basic information they need to better understand our nation\u2019s monopoly problem, and the political and economic dangers posed by concentration of power over our nation\u2019s markets. In doing so, the bill restores a fundamental right to collect information that will empower enforcers to do a better job of protecting opportunity and democracy in America today, and empower citizens and Congress to do a better job of holding those enforcers accountable,\u201d said Barry Lynn, director of Open Markets Institute.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://ellison.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/rep-ellison-introduces-merger-retrospective-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9817138090729713, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}