PBS News Hour

AMNA NAWAZ: Two Democratic former members of the Federal Trade Commission today sued the Trump administration after being fired last week before their terms expired.

The independent agency, designed to be bipartisan, protects consumers and enforces antitrust laws.

The White House defended the move, saying -- quote - - "The time was right to let these people go."

One of those fired commissioners, Alvaro Bedoya, joins me now.

Welcome to the "News Hour."

ALVARO BEDOYA, Former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission: Thanks for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So the current chairman of the FTC, Andrew Ferguson, released a statement after your firing.

In part, he said this: "I have no doubts about President Trump's constitutional authority to remove commissioners, which is necessary to ensure democratic accountability for our government."

We should say you were appointed by President Biden back in 2022 to a seven-year term.

ALVARO BEDOYA: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: The new administration says they can pick their own people.

Why do you think they're wrong?

ALVARO BEDOYA: Well, let's quote that gentleman, Andrew Ferguson, because when the Senate asked him the same question when he was nominated, he, as solicitor general of Virginia, said the opposite.

He said that the 90-year-old Supreme Court president that says we can't be removed without cause was good law and only the Supreme Court could overturn it.

So I agree with that guy, and that's what we're trying to reiterate and protect today.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what are you suing for?

What do you hope to see happen as a result of the lawsuit?

ALVARO BEDOYA: It's been a bedrock principle of American law for 100 years that independent agencies like the FTC are protected by these removal protections.

But it isn't just us.

It is the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the SEC.

And so in a world where the president can fire us for no reason at any time, he can also do that to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the head of the FDIC.

What this lawsuit is about is not just protecting the independence and the integrity of the FDIC.

It's also making sure that if you have a retirement account in the stock market, if you have a checking account insured by the FDIC, you are also protected from the chaos that comes from having the head of your agency fired on a whim.

AMNA NAWAZ: And when you say removal protections, that refers to the fact that, to be removed, you have to be fired for cause.

ALVARO BEDOYA: Yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: You said there was no cause given when you were removed, correct?

ALVARO BEDOYA: That's right.

And, in fact, there's only three causes we can be removed for, inefficiency, malfeasance, and neglect.

And none of that was asserted in the e-mail that we got when I was at my daughter's gymnastics class last Tuesday.

AMNA NAWAZ: That's when you got the call?

ALVARO BEDOYA: That's right, the e-mail, yes.

AMNA NAWAZ: The FTC, just for folks unfamiliar, it's an independent agency.

It basically keeps tabs on big business, right?

For people who aren't familiar, who don't know a lot about what the commission does... AMNA NAWAZ: ... can you give us some examples of where they might have seen the commission's work show up in their lives?

ALVARO BEDOYA: Absolutely.

Let's talk about medical bills.

There was a gentleman by the name of Martin Shkreli.

He bought orphan drugs.

He would jack up the price on them and basically rip off tons of people who needed that drug to survive.

We got that guy banned from the pharmaceutical industry for life.

Take insulin.

A lot of people have to take insulin to survive.

And yet the price is too high.

FTC staff right now is filing a lawsuit before the commission.

I'm a judge in that lawsuit that argues that these companies called Pharmacy middlemen, or PBMs, are competing not to lower the price of insulin, but to raise it.

And so by firing me or trying to fire, I would say, me and Commissioner Slaughter, we have no idea what's going to happen to that lawsuit, because both of the judges in that lawsuit are gone.

Chairman Ferguson and Commissioner Holyoak are both recused.

AMNA NAWAZ: So the FTC historically has five members, right, no more than three from the same political party.

After you were fired, with Rebecca Slaughter, we should mention, another Democrat... AMNA NAWAZ: After you were fired, you wrote online -- quote -- "The president wants the FTC to be a lapdog for his golfing buddies."

What are you worried about happening on the FTC in the absence of bipartisan representation?

ALVARO BEDOYA: Here's what I meant by that.

Think about the gentlemen over the president's shoulder at the inauguration.

I am responsible for enforcing a 20-year privacy order against the social media company X. FTC staff right now is trying to tighten the privacy restrictions to users of Facebook.

I'm a judge in that.

And I am suing Mr. Bezos' company, Amazon, in not one, but two separate lawsuits.

So what I am worried about is that what allegedly happened with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, where he was let loose from the charges he was facing apparently due to some kind of sweetheart deal or something like that, I'm worried about that kind of thing happening at the FTC and situations where the White House might call the FTC and say, hey, Mr. Bezos right now has two lawsuits.

It would be great if it was just one.

And Chairman Ferguson, my colleague there, has a choice.

They can either obey and stay or, if they don't, my suspicion is that what's happening to me will happen to them.

AMNA NAWAZ: Well, I should point out Chairman Ferguson has said the commission, in his words, will continue its tireless work to protect consumers, lower prices and police anticompetitive behavior.

You seem to be saying you don't believe him.

ALVARO BEDOYA: Well, I'm actually saying something different.

I'm saying it doesn't matter what he thinks, because, at the end of the day, in a world where he can be fired at any reason for any time, which is what the president is alleging,he either goes along with that agenda or doesn't and will be gone in short order.

AMNA NAWAZ: I want to circle back to an idea you mentioned earlier because in your lawsuit you explicitly say: "Removal protections like those for FTC commissioners appear in statues for myriad agencies, notably including the Federal Reserve."

ALVARO BEDOYA: That's right.

AMNA NAWAZ: You're basically saying how the court rules in this case could have a much broader impact.

Is that right?

ALVARO BEDOYA: That is precisely what we're saying.

It is the same set of protections for the Fed that apply to the FTC.

It is an even arguably weaker set of protections that apply to the FDIC or the NCUA.

And so if the president manages to break that 90-year-old Supreme Court president, if he manages to break that norm, it's going to have ripple effects through the whole economy, I'm afraid.

AMNA NAWAZ: So what happens next with your lawsuit and the legal fight?

ALVARO BEDOYA: So we filed, I think, around 12:30 today.

We should get assigned a judge this evening or tomorrow.

Our hope is that in a month or two that district court judge will reach a decision, we hope reinstating us, like Gwynne Wilcox, the NLRB board member, was reinstated.

But then it will almost certainly be appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals and a lot of people think to the Supreme Court.

AMNA NAWAZ: Alvaro Bedoya, former member of the Federal Trade Commission, joining us tonight, thank you so much for your time.

ALVARO BEDOYA: Thanks for having me.