Just a week after FTC Chair Lina Khan announced that the FTC will have a “robust participatory process,” Politico is reporting that the chair’s “chief of staff ordered the agency’s staff to cancel all public appearances.” In an email obtained by Politico, Jen Howard wrote that she is “…putting a moratorium on staff participating in external events.” Politico adds that “[i]n a follow-up message two days later, Howard said that any staff who were scheduled for public events should cancel those appearances.” That follow-up message from Howard said that “I want to make clear that for any situations where staff are currently scheduled to do a public event and thus need to contact event organizers to withdraw their participation, the message they should convey is that they are sorry they can no longer participate due to pressing matters at the FTC.”

Eric J. Ellman is Senior Vice President for Public Policy and Legal Affairs at the Consumer Data Industry Association (CDIA) in Washington, DC. He also served for eight months as Interim President and CEO of the Association. More