1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

The Supreme Court just handed any sitting president the power to fire FTC commissioners at will, and Congress needs to act now to fix it. The solution is straightforward: restructure the FTC as a legislative agency under direct congressional authority, removing it from the executive branch entirely. The FTC was built to be independent for a reason. Congress designed it with politically balanced, staggered terms specifically to insulate consumer protection and antitrust enforcement from political interference. That design is now dead. Chief Justice Roberts' majority opinion explicitly states that a president "must have the assistance of officers he can trust" — which means any future president can gut the agency the moment it makes a decision they dislike. That's not a regulator. That's a political tool. Congress created the FTC. Congress can restructure it. Moving the agency under legislative control is the only durable fix that doesn't depend on the next court or the next administration to hold the line. Consumers and markets need an FTC that enforces the law, not one that serves whoever is in the White House.