How Will Antitrust Agencies Deal with an Increasingly Conservative Congress?: A State Perspective

• Date: 01 September 1996
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X9604100304
• Author: Thomas Greene
• Published date: 01 September 1996
• Subject Matter: Article

The Antitrust Bulletin/Fall 1996

How

will antitrust agencies deal

with an

increasingly

conservative

Congress?: astate perspective

BY THOMAS GREENE*

577

An important, but unstated, premise of this question is that a more

conservative Congress will be hostile to antitrust enforcement.

This is not an assumption that should be accepted easily or uncrit-

ically.

Core

antitrust

values

have

historically

enjoyed

broad,

bipartisan

support. Senator Sherman was a Republican, as was

President Benjamin Harrison, who signed his measure into law.

Improvements in the antitrust laws and budgetary support for fed-

eral enforcement agencies have consistently garnered the votes

of

Members of both political parties.

Most recently, Republicans and Democrats have sought to free

the economy from the burdens of unnecessary regulation. This

effort has as its most fundamental rationale the ability of competi-

*

Senior

Assistant

Attorney

General,

Chief,

Antitrust

Section,

Office of the California Attorney General.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The views expressed here are those

of

the author and do

not necessarily reflect those

of

the California Department

of

Justice or

the Multi-State Antitrust Task Force

of

the National Association

of

Attor-

neys General.

© 1996 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.