FTC Demands Significant Budget Increase for FY 2025 – Antitrust Byte | Epstein Becker Green

The FY 2025 budget proposed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) calls for a 20 percent increase over the FY 2024 budget and the hiring of an additional 55 employees to support the company’s mission.

The budget increase will be partially offset by an increase in Hart-Scott-Rodino application fees, which currently range from $30,000 to $2,335,000, depending on the size of the transaction.

As stated in FTC Chair Lina Khan’s May 15, 2024 prepared remarks before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, the FTC’s increased budget request and additional resources are necessary, in part, to continue the agency’s “illegal merger” efforts in “markets health care services.” According to Chairman Khan, these mergers “threaten patients with higher costs and lower quality of care, and healthcare workers who receive lower wages and poorer working conditions.” She cited recent enforcement actions against hospital mergers in California and North Carolina as examples of the FTC’s efforts to protect competition in hospital markets. Additionally, the agency will continue to focus on “roll-up strategies across all sectors, including health care,” which require a review of “aggregate trends, not just individual transactions.”

The FTC’s increased budget demands and the U.S. Department of Justice’s newly established Health Care Monopoly and Collusion Task Force portend continued difficulties in health care transactions.