Press Releases

WASHINGTON, D.C.—House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler today delivered the following remarks, as prepared, on the House floor in support of the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022 (H.R. 3843):
 
“Madam Speaker, H.R. 3843 is bicameral, bipartisan legislation that consists of three distinct titles—each of which would make modest, but important, improvements to modernize our antitrust system and to help protect competition.

“Title one of the bill updates the filing fees that merging parties pay to the federal antitrust enforcers that review their transactions.  These fees have not been updated in two decades, which has left these agencies in desperate need of more resources to complete their increasingly heavy workload.

“This bill raises the fees that parties pay for large transactions and lowers the fees that parties pay for small- and medium-sized transactions, which ensures that larger deals pay their fair share.

“Critically, this legislation raises revenue to support necessary antitrust enforcement while also saving taxpayers $1.4 billion over the next five years.

“Title two of the bill requires merging parties to notify the antitrust agencies if they are subsidized by countries or entities that are strategic or economic threats to the United States.

“This notification requirement gives the agencies immediate access to the information they need to assess the full competitive consequences of subsidized transactions and enables them to better protect U.S. economic interests when they review proposed mergers.

“Title three of this legislation ensures that states do not have to waste precious time and taxpayer dollars when they litigate antitrust cases in federal courts.

“It does this by exempting state enforcement of the federal antitrust laws from the often time-consuming and costly multidistrict litigation process.  Federal antitrust enforcement agencies are already exempt from this process and the bill simply puts state antitrust enforcement on equal footing with the federal government.

“Each element of this legislation enjoys bicameral, bipartisan support.  Titles one and two have already passed the House as part of the America COMPETES Act and title three passed the Senate by unanimous consent.  Together, they would help ensure that our antitrust agencies have the resources they need to protect competition, would provide important disclosures about foreign economic adversaries, and would strengthen state enforcement of our antitrust laws.

“I want to thank Mr. Neguse for sponsoring this important package of bipartisan legislation.  I also want to thank Mr. Cicilline and Mr. Buck, the Chair and Ranking Member of the Antitrust Subcommittee, for their leadership on these bills and on competition issues generally.

“I urge all Members to support this important legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.”