Today, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division salutes the President’s decision to revoke Executive Order 14036. The Division will use this opportunity to continue its work to recalibrate and modernize the Federal approach to competition policy to suit the needs of our dynamic and innovative economy.
“America First Antitrust focuses on empowering the American people in the free markets, not enabling regulators and bureaucrats to prescribe outcomes,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “We are unleashing the new American Golden Age through antitrust enforcement that removes barriers to innovation and opportunity and limits regulatory burdens on free competition.”
Instead of an overly prescriptive and burdensome approach, the Division commends the Administration for promoting competition via tailored executive orders that call for lowering drug prices and opening regulatory barriers to competition. Beyond implementing these Executive Orders, the Antitrust Division has made steady progress in freeing up deal flow by appropriately streamlining the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) review process. In particular, the Division has reinstated the practice of granting early termination in uncontroversial HSR reviews as well as reinstating a willingness to settle merger reviews with targeted and well-crafted consent decrees. Both practices were eschewed during the Biden administration. Moving forward, the Division will continue adapting towards focused law enforcement that matches the complexity and pace of the modern economy.
