U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ranking Member, have announced an active agenda of hearings and legislation for 2007.

"In the upcoming year, the Antitrust Subcommittee will continue to engage in active, ongoing oversight over the antitrust agencies and the nation's key industries. Our goal will be to ensure that our antitrust laws are vigorously applied so that consumers see the benefits of full and free competition," Senator Kohl said. "I look forward to working with Senator Hatch and continuing our Subcommittee's proud tradition of strong and bipartisan antitrust oversight."

"This is an exciting time to examine antitrust issues facing the nation," Hatch said. "I have tremendous respect for Sen. Kohl, and I look forward to collaborating with him as we guide the work of the Subcommittee this Congress."

In 2007, the Subcommittee plans to address the following issues:

* Overseeing the Antitrust Enforcement Agencies

The Subcommittee expects to engage in close scrutiny of the government's antitrust enforcement activities at both the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, including holding an antitrust oversight hearing. Issues to be examined will be merger enforcement, the government's pursuit of civil non-merger cases, such as monopolization and unilateral anti-competitive practices, and criminal antitrust enforcement. The Justice Department's implementation of the 2004 Tunney Act amendments designed to ensure meaningful judicial review of antitrust settlements will also be scrutinized.

* Pharmaceutical Industry

In this era of ever rising health care and prescription drug costs, the Subcommittee will make competition in the pharmaceutical industry a priority. A particular focus will be eliminating barriers to the entry of generic competition to brand name drugs. The Subcommittee will also closely scrutinize the continuing consolidation among companies in the pharmaceutical benefits management (PBM) business to ensure that this consolidation does not create any anti-competitive bottlenecks. Additionally, Senator Kohl intends to pursue legislation to ban "reverse payment" patent settlements in which brand name drug manufacturers pay off generic drug manufacturers to delay the entry of generic competition.

* Gasoline, Natural Gas, and Oil Markets/Energy

In this time of continued high prices for crude oil and gasoline, the Subcommittee will focus on bringing increased competition to the oil industry as a means of restraining energy price increases. Our efforts will include monitoring and oversight of the Federal Trade Commission's investigations into allegations of anti-competitive behavior as well as its continuing project to observe and track changes in gasoline prices in order to uncover any potentially anticompetitive behavior. We will also continue to engage in oversight to ensure that the FTC and Justice Department take all necessary action to prosecute those who attempt to engage in anti-competitive conduct, price gouging or market manipulation. Senator Kohl intends to pursue legislation to enhance antitrust enforcement in the oil and gas industry, including legislation to bring the actions of the OPEC oil cartel under the jurisdiction of U.S. antitrust law, and legislation to increase antitrust scrutiny of mergers and acquisitions in the oil and gas industry.

* Airline Competition

Another important issue the Subcommittee expects to scrutinize will be ensuring full and robust competition in the airline industry. Airline consolidation will be a particular focus in the wake of several merger proposals at the beginning of the year. We will closely examine the likely effects on competition of these proposed airline mergers. We will also continue to examine any non-merger conduct of airlines that raises competition concerns.

* Railroad Competition

The Subcommittee will examine the competitiveness of the railroad industry and whether shippers, communities, and small businesses who depend on rail transportation have been the victims of anti-competitive practices when dealing with dominant railroad shippers. Senator Kohl intends to pursue legislation to remove obsolete antitrust exemptions protecting the railroad industry, exemptions that eliminate the ability of those aggrieved by anti-competitive practices or transactions to seek antitrust remedies.

* Telecommunications

We plan to continue to examine closely competition in the rapidly consolidating telecommunications industry in the year ahead. Maintaining competitive choices in this industry is crucial to consumers and the health of the national economy. In the wake of the Verizon/MCI, AT&T/SBC, and AT&T/Bell South mergers of the past two years, we will focus carefully on the state of competition in this industry. Our subcommittee intends to advocate for proposed changes to the Telecommunications Act to promote competition in the telecommunications market and consider ways the Justice Department can play a role in protecting that competition. We will also examine the need for network neutrality protections, so that consumers continue to have the freedom to access the internet content they wish without interference from their internet service provider.

* Media/Cable/Satellite

In this era of continued consolidation in the media sector, the Subcommittee will continue to focus on competitive conditions in these vital industries. We will continue to examine the effects of media consolidation on the marketplace of ideas, on diversity of ownership in the media, and on the ability of independent content producers to distribute their products. As cable television rates continue to rise, we will also continue to emphasize bringing increased competition to the cable and satellite television market, by such means as examining program access issues and ensuring that competitors to incumbent cable companies are not subject to predatory conduct and also evaluate the impact of new technology and new competitive options available to consumers. We will also review the need for renewal of the program access law so that all cable and satellite providers will continue to have access to "must have" programming necessary to compete.

* Agriculture

The Subcommittee intends to examine competition in agricultural markets. Issues to be examined will be consolidation in the agricultural sector, the danger of monopsony buying power as a result of agricultural consolidation, inequities in bargaining power held by processors over farmers and ranchers, and the competitive impact of mergers in the seed industry.

* Hospital Purchasing of Medical Products

The Subcommittee will continue its work to ensure that hospital group purchasing organizations ("GPOs") operate as intended—making sure they do not harm competition and innovation in the markets for medical devices but instead lower costs for hospitals, medical caregivers, and patients. The Subcommittee's hearings and investigatory and oversight efforts into this issue over the past several years have resulted in the nation's leading GPOs agreeing to voluntary reforms to their business practices, including the creation of a new self-regulatory organization, the Healthcare Group Purchasing Industry Initiative. The Subcommittee will continue its examination of whether the Initiative is adequate to assure the industry's voluntary reforms are permanent and enforceable, or whether legislation is necessary to assure this result

* International Markets

The Subcommittee plans to examine closely how U.S. multinational companies have been affected by different antitrust regimes in various countries. Complying with the antitrust laws of different countries, which often have different substantive or procedural rules, is increasingly becoming a burden on U.S. businesses and thus merits review by the Subcommittee. In recent years, the Subcommittee has worked closely with U.S. and international enforcement authorities to address these concerns and will to continue to do so.

* Antitrust Modernization Commission

The Antitrust Modernization Commission is due to issue its final report in April 2007. The Antitrust Subcommittee will closely review and consider the recommendations for antitrust law reform contained in the report, and will consider whether any legislation is necessary to implement those recommendations in the report that the Subcommittee concludes are meritorious.

* Industry Standards

Because voluntary industry standards often involve significant coordination and cooperation among horizontal competitors, they have given rise to frequent allegation of anticompetitive behavior. Given the number of ongoing controversies regarding both the pro-competitive and anticompetitive effects of industry standards and standard-setting processes, and the recent activities of antitrust enforcement entities, the Antitrust Subcommittee intends to examine this issue carefully and will consider whether legislation in this area would be advisable.

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