DeWine, Kohl Announce Antitrust Subcommittee Agenda for 2006

DEWINE, KOHL ANNOUNCE ANTITRUST SUBCOMMITTEE AGENDA FOR 2006

U.S. Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, and Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Ranking Member, have announced an active agenda of hearings and legislation for 2006.

"For years Senator Kohl and I have operated the Antitrust Subcommittee in a constructive, bipartisan manner," Senator DeWine said. "I am proud of this approach and the record of achievement it has helped create. We will continue our efforts in the future to promote active and responsive enforcement of the antitrust laws, because we both believe strongly that vigorous antitrust enforcement promotes competition, increases innovation, and helps consumers get the best products and services at lower prices. Our oversight efforts and investigations will continue to focus on achieving these goals."

"In the upcoming year, the Antitrust Subcommittee will continue to engage in active, ongoing oversight over the antitrust agencies and the nation's key industries. Our goal will be to ensure that our antitrust laws are vigorously applied so that competition flourishes and anticompetitive practices are prevented," Senator Kohl said. "I am particularly proud of the strong and constructive bipartisanship of this Subcommittee which has been a hallmark of our work since Senator DeWine and I assumed leadership of the Antitrust Subcommittee in 1997. I expect this tradition of strong and bipartisan antitrust oversight will continue throughout 2006."

During the past ten years, under the strong bipartisan leadership of Senators DeWine and Kohl, the Subcommittee has aggressively protected the American consumer by focusing on key sectors of the nation's economy. The Subcommittee has conducted more than 40 hearings to examine competition in numerous important industries, including health care and hospital group purchasing, gasoline and energy, media and telecommunications, computer software, the airline industry, and agriculture.

In 2006, the Subcommittee plans to address the following issues:

-- Telecommunications

We plan to continue to closely examine competition in the rapidly consolidating telecommunications industry in the year ahead. With mergers between SBC/AT&T and Verizon/MCI in recent months, and the proposed merger between AT&T and BellSouth, we are witnessing the most fundamental restructuring of the telecom industry since the break-up of the AT&T phone monopoly more than 20 years ago. Maintaining competitive choices in this industry is crucial to consumers and the health of the national economy. Accordingly, in the upcoming year, the Subcommittee will hold a hearing to examine the impact of the AT&T/BellSouth merger. In addition, we will examine the record of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in bringing competition to this marketplace, consider whether statutory changes or enhancements are desirable, and participate actively in any efforts to revise this statute. Our subcommittee intends to advocate for proposed changes to the Act that would promote competition in the telecommunications market and consider ways the Justice Department can play a role in protecting that competition.

-- Media/Cable/Satellite

In this era of increasing consolidation in the media sector, the Subcommittee will continue to focus on competitive conditions in this vital industry. We will continue to examine the effects of media consolidation on the marketplace of ideas, on diversity of ownership in the media, and on the ability of independent content producers to distribute their products. We will work to preserve and protect competition, diversity, and localism in media. Our continued priority will be to bring increased competition to the cable and satellite television market through a review of program access issues, by ensuring that competitors of incumbents are not subject to predatory conduct, and through evaluation of the impact of the new technologies and competitive options available to consumers. The recent plans by large regional phone companies to enter the video market hold out the prospect of an important new competitive choice for consumers. We will continue to examine the effects of entry into video services, and consider proposals to eliminate barriers to entry faced by the phone companies in providing such services.

-- Health Care Industry

The Subcommittee will continue its work to ensure that hospital group purchasing organizations ("GPOs") operate as intended—making sure they do not harm competition and innovation in the markets for medical devices, but rather lower costs for hospitals, medical caregivers, and patients. The Subcommittee's hearings and investigatory and oversight efforts into this issue over the past several years have resulted in the nation's leading GPOs agreeing to voluntary reforms of their business practices. The Subcommittee has been following this achievement by examining closely how the GPOs implement these reforms. As a direct result of the Subcommittee's efforts, in 2005 the GPO industry launched a new self-regulatory organization, the Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative. In the upcoming year, the Subcommittee will hold a hearing to examine the implementation of this Initiative. Our examination will include consideration of whether the Initiative is sufficiently broad in scope, whether it is adequate for ensuring that the industry's voluntary reforms are permanent and enforceable, or whether legislation is necessary to assure this result. The Subcommittee's continued goal is to ensure that GPO practices result in America's hospitals, medical caregivers, and patients obtaining the best possible medical equipment and supplies at the best possible prices.

-- Gasoline and Oil Markets/Energy

In this time of skyrocketing prices for crude oil and gasoline, the Subcommittee will focus on bringing increased competition to the oil industry as a means of restraining energy price increases. Our efforts will include monitoring and oversight of the Federal Trade Commission's investigations into allegations of anti-competitive behavior and its continuing project to observe and track changes in gasoline prices. We will also continue to engage in oversight to ensure that the FTC and Justice Department take all necessary action to prosecute those who attempt to engage in price gouging and market manipulation in the wake of natural disasters, such as was witnessed in the immediate aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.

-- International Markets

The Subcommittee plans to examine closely how U.S. multinational companies have been affected by various antitrust regimes in different countries. Complying with the antitrust laws of multiple countries, which often have different substantive or procedural rules, is becoming an increasing burden on U.S. businesses, and thus merits review by the Subcommittee. The Subcommittee has been working closely with U.S. enforcement authorities to address this issue, and will to continue to do so. We will also continue to work closely with the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition and its Competition Commissioner to ensure that American companies are treated fairly and in a non-discriminatory fashion when their transactions and activities are reviewed by the European Commission ("EC"). The Subcommittee will also continue to encourage the EC and other international antitrust enforcement agencies to focus their investigations on objectively provable harm to consumers through the use of sound economic analysis, and to cooperate with U.S. authorities to the maximum extent possible in order to harmonize the application of competition law principles.

-- Strengthening Criminal Enforcement

Senators DeWine and Kohl will continue their efforts to gain passage of the legislation that was introduced last year that strengthens the Department of Justice's ability to prosecute cartel and bid rigging conspiracies by authorizing the Department to seek a wiretap order from a federal judge—for a limited time period—during the course of investigating a criminal antitrust conspiracy.

-- Overseeing the Antitrust Enforcement Agencies

We plan to hold an antitrust oversight hearing to examine antitrust enforcement activities. The Subcommittee will continue to focus on the processes of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition and on ways the Subcommittee can help those agencies perform more efficiently and effectively. The Subcommittee will consider any antitrust reform legislation to ensure more effective enforcement of the nation's antitrust laws.

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