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significant swathes our economy today. I am endlessly impressed by the talent and tenacity of
the FTC teams, especially in the face of ongoing resource constraints and legal challenges to our
authorities.
Over the past 24 months, the FTC has moved to challenge major transactions that would
have eroded competition in critical sectors of the economy, including defense, semiconductors,
energy, healthcare, digital markets, and pharmaceuticals. We are tackling anticompetitive
practices, including those that harm American farmers, small businesses, and workers. Last year,
the FTC and a bipartisan coalition of ten state attorneys general charged the two largest
pesticides manufacturers with unlawful “pay to block” schemes that prevented farmers from
having access to cheaper generic products, costing farmers billions of dollars. In January, the
FTC proposed a rule that would ban employers from imposing noncompete restrictions that lock
in workers and collectively depress their wages by up to $300 billion—while also depriving
startups and businesses of the employees they need to expand and compete. In the months since
proposing this rule, we’ve received over 21,000 public comments, including from nurses and
doctors, fast food workers, and hairdressers, who told us how noncompetes had hurt their
livelihoods and undermined their economic liberty. Already, several enforcement actions by the
FTC have led firms to drop noncompete restrictions imposed on thousands of workers.
The FTC also continues to use its tools to conduct market-wide inquiries that allow us to
keep pace with new business practices and trends. Last June, the Commission launched an
inquiry into the practices of pharmacy benefits managers to shed light on the opaque operations
of these large middlemen who can dictate pricing and access to life-saving drugs for millions of
Americans. This inquiry follows thousands of public comments the FTC received explaining the
real-life costs that can follow from PBMs’ current practices. One doctor, for example, recounted
