Biden Is Hyping Antitrust Policy. Congress Is Cutting It.

President Joe Biden previewed a key piece of the agenda he plans to tout Thursday at the State of the Union address by holding a meeting Tuesday of economic regulators to announce plans to lower prices, tackle junk fees and increase market competition.

But the antitrust agenda, now a major political talking point for the Democratic Party, is threatened by another priority: funding the government. The consolidated budget bill containing six separate appropriation bills includes $45 million in cuts to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The House passed the legislation Wednesday, and it’s expected to soon pass in the Senate.

The Antitrust Division has been at the forefront of the Biden administration’s economic agenda as it files suits against companies engaged in monopolistic practices and blocks mergers that would increase prices for consumers, including a recent successful suit against the merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlines.

On Tuesday, Biden announced that the Antitrust Division would lead a strike force on unfair and illegal pricing along with the Federal Trade Commission.

“If you keep prices high while engaging in illegal practices that are fraudulent or unfair or deceptive or anti-competitive,… we will enforce the law,” Biden said. “We will enforce the law.”

The already underfunded agency would have to take on this additional work with a smaller budget if Congress maintains the cuts written into the budget bill for the next fiscal year.

Those cuts come by effectively nullifying a bipartisan law enacted in 2022 that increased filing fees that corporations pay prior to merger authorization. The Merger Fee Modernization Act increased these fees for the express purpose of providing more resources for the