![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Varney.jpeg)
June 14, 2023
Christine Varney Made A Career Out Of An Agency She Now Deems Unconstitutional
Implicit in the worldview of these revolvers is the idea that corporations should be free to operate and acquire competitors with near impunity, therefore antitrust enforcement should be as narrowly tailored as possible. This is obviously problematic — we need regulators that believe in the government’s ability to take on corporations with outsized market influence — but Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s Christine Varney recently took things many steps further in her representation of the biotech company Illumina in its case against the FTC. Varney doesn’t just attack specific enforcement actions as unwarranted, but calls into question the constitutionality of the FTC’s authority to issue enforcement actions in the first place.
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June 06, 2023
Senate Must Get Net Neutrality Answers From Revolving Door FCC Nominee
Does former corporate lobbyist Anna Gomez stand for Big Telecom or a free and open internet?
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Kevin_McCarthy_official_portrait_speaker_cropped.jpg)
May 27, 2023 | Common Dreams
Three Things the Media Misses When Discussing the Debt Ceiling
Spending cuts aren’t minor, caps ignore inflation, and President Biden isn’t helpless.
![](https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/6902660166_b36eb76963_b.jpg)
May 17, 2023 | The Sling
Biden Should Relieve Martin Oberman from His Chairmanship at the Surface Transportation Board
Just weeks after a series of high profile train derailments headlined by the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) decided to double down on the current railroad oligopoly. The STB approved a merger between Canadian Pacific Railway and Kansas City Southern Railway Company, cutting the number of major “Class I” rail companies in the United States from seven down to six. This decision is diametrically opposed to the public interest and seriously undermines trust in rail regulators.
May 17, 2023
Release: New Letter Urges President to Make Leadership Change at Surface Transportation Board
A whole-of-government economic agenda requires leadership devoted to rebuilding an economy that works in the public interest. As we explain in the letter, we believe Chairman Oberman has eschewed this responsibility and should no longer be trusted to lead vital oversight of the American rail industry.
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May 15, 2023
Biden Will Show He Can Be Bullied If He Caves To Republican Debt Demands
“GOP leaders have sent a wildly exploitative ransom note to the public. The administration should not accept its terms.”
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April 27, 2023
CFPB To Tenants: We’ve Got Your Back
Biden’s best regulator takes aim at one of the biggest barriers to accessing rental housing.
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April 21, 2023
Rescinding Trump’s Shields For Non-Bank Financial Firms Is A Crucial First Step
Rolling back Trump’s framework just means that FSOC is allowing itself to see the financial system through a realistic lens.
April 19, 2023
KJ Boyle Andrea Beaty Emma Marsano
Anti-MonopolyConsumer ProtectionDepartment of JusticeFTCGovernment CapacityIndependent Agencies
To Reverse Decades Of Neglect, Antitrust Agencies Need Robust Budgets
The FTC and the DOJ are still dealing with a deluge of corporate mergers, and still only have capabilities to challenge a handful of those actions each year. Restoring competition in the U.S. economy will require much more than slight increases in funding — these government agencies need monumental budgets to take on entrenched monopolies that have flourished with decades of lax enforcement.
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April 11, 2023
Progressive Groups Urge President Biden Not To Rush To Fill Republican FTC Vacancies
Demand Progress and the Revolving Door Project sent a letter to President Biden reminding him that neither the White House nor Senate Democrats “should feel compelled to expedite the nomination and/or confirmation of Republicans to independent agencies” particularly while Democratic nominees remain languishing in the Senate due to years of Senate Republicans’ malfeasance.
April 05, 2023 | Revolving Door Project Newsletter
Dylan Gyauch-Lewis Hannah Story Brown
Department of JusticeDepartment of TransportationFinancial RegulationGovernanceIndependent AgenciesRevolving Door
Several Flavors of Regulatory Failures
Until the Biden administration learns that they need to draw a sharp contrast with their predecessors and, generally, do a full 180, they will keep getting egg on their faces. And when the blame genuinely belongs to both the Trump and Biden administrations, warranted criticism of disastrous Republican deregulation is undermined.
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March 27, 2023 | The American Prospect
The SVB Collapse Reveals the Class Bias in American Policymaking
When bankers blow their businesses up, it’s no-questions-asked bailout time. When student borrowers need relief, not so much.
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March 22, 2023 | The Sling
Too Big To Rail: Railroads, Safety, and Accountability
Unfortunately, America’s rail workers are all too familiar with the consequences of how the railroad industry has been operated over the past 30 years. Precision scheduled railroading (PSR) has made the difference. PSR is a business model focused on reducing overhead costs and generating returns for shareholders. Similar to many other business models driven by financialization, it’s effectively a scheme by giant railroad operators to cut staff and backup resources, push the remaining equipment and personnel to the breaking point, and funnel as much of the cash as possible to Wall Street. And by increasing market concentration even further, the recently approved rail merger between Canadian Pacific (CP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS) promises to make the situation even more dire — for railroad workers, for the communities our rail lines pass through, and for the American economy.
March 17, 2023 | RDP Newsletter
Hack Watch: Two Percent Is Just A Number
There’s nothing special about the Fed’s target inflation rate