Alvaro Bedoya?s confirmation to the FTC gives Lina Khan her Democratic majority

More importantly — and almost certainly why his confirmation was such a drawn-out and contentious process — he’s its third Democrat, and soon will likely be a deciding vote himself.In a statement, Bedoya said he was excited to work with the four other commissioners and “truly thrilled to work alongside the public servants of the Federal Trade Commission.” The FTC has been gridlocked with two Republican commissioners (Noah Phillips and Christine Wilson) and two Democrats (chair Lina Khan and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter) for most of Khan’s tenure. With no federal consumer privacy law, the FTC’s powers are limited, but it still can — and has — gone after companies for privacy issues.At his hearing, Senate Republicans claimed they took issue not with Bedoya’s privacy stance but with his public tweets. Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell urging them to put off the Bedoya vote because his confirmation would give Khan a majority.Antitrust reform and privacy advocates, on the other hand, celebrated Bedoya’s confirmation.“Alongside Chair Lina Khan and Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, we can finally envision an effective FTC that plays a vital role in leveling the playing field and restoring our nation’s economy,” Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said in a statement.Bedoya’s confirmation was decried by Big Tech-friendly lobbying groups, such as NetChoice, which said: “Chair Khan has the votes she needs to accomplish her radical progressive goals at the expense of politicizing the FTC,” which would “harm all Americans by ruining healthy and competitive markets.”The anti-Bedoya side did get its way for a while; Bedoya’s confirmation was delayed considerably. Phillips congratulated Bedoya on the confirmation, referring to him as “my friend,” while Wilson tweeted that she “look[ed] forward to collaborating with him, particularly on children’s privacy.” With Bedoya on board, Khan can run the FTC the way she did last summer, when the FTC had three Democratic commissioners — which is surely the way she’s envisioned since she became its chair.