ROCC Joins over 40 Groups in Opposing Cuts to FTC and DOJ Budgets

On June 3, 2025, the Responsible Online Commerce Coalition (ROCC) signed on to a letter urging Senate and House Appropriations Committee leadership to commit to fully funding the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the upcoming FY 2026 Appropriations process. 

The letter states: “The current funding for the Antitrust Division and the FTC is not enough for them to deal with increasingly complex and resource-intensive enforcement actions against some of the largest and most powerful companies in the world.”

Full text of the letter is available here and below: 

Dear Chair Cole, Ranking Member DeLauro, Chair Collins, and Ranking Member Murray:

We the undersigned business associations and coalitions write to urge you to adequately fund our antitrust enforcement agencies in the upcoming FY 2026 Appropriations process so that they can engage in robust enforcement of U.S. antitrust laws. The Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“Antitrust Division”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) have a responsibility to promote competition by stopping anticompetitive mergers and anticompetitive conduct. However, they will not be able to fulfill this mission if they do not have sufficient resources, and we strongly urge you to ensure that these agencies have adequate funding to protect our economy.

The current funding for the Antitrust Division and the FTC is not enough for them to deal with increasingly complex and resource-intensive enforcement actions against some of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The DOJ’s budget under the FY2025 continuing resolution is a mere $233 million, which leaves their funding “essentially flat once adjusted for inflation” when compared to 2023. The FTC is also facing a reduced budget, with funding $4.3 million below the agency’s 2023 budget. This is unacceptable, as these agencies are already chronically underfunded, and it cuts against the intent of the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act, a bipartisan law enacted in 2022 that is meant to sustainably fund the enforcement agencies through revenue derived from merger filing fee collections. A 2019 study by the Center for Equitable Growth found that “[s]ince 2010, GDP has increased 37 percent, but appropriations for the Antitrust Division at the Justice Department and the FTC have increased only 3 percent.” This means that antitrust enforcement funding is not even close to keeping pace with the growth of our economy, and likely means that countless bad actors have gone and will go unpunished, bolstering a system that rewards monopolies and crushes competition. Therefore, we urge the Appropriations Committees to fund the Antitrust Division and the FTC’s competition mission at a level of $288 million and $300 million, respectively.

It is imperative that we give our antitrust agencies far more funding than they currently receive so that they can do the work of protecting competition from monopolistic conduct and blocking anticompetitive mergers. And despite the historical lack of funding, we are also in a renewed era of commitment to antitrust enforcement, with major cases across some of the most consolidated industries, such as agriculture and food, technology, healthcare, and more, being announced every week. When we most need antitrust enforcement to protect and promote competition, a lack of funding forces these agencies to try to do more with much less. And at some point, they will be forced simply to do less.

Our country cannot afford to let up on antitrust enforcement. Consumers are facing skyrocketing prices, and businesses are facing existential threats in the market due to the monopolistic behavior of dominant companies. We respectfully request that you take urgent action to ensure that the FTC and the Antitrust Division have the funding they need to restore robust competition to our economy.

Sincerely,

AAHOA (Asian American Hotel Owners Association)
American Booksellers Association
American Independent Business Alliance
American MainStreet Products
Association for Independent Medicine (AIM)
Cambridge Local First
Coalition for App Fairness
Coalition for Patient-Centered Care
Corn Growers Association of North Carolina
Digital Content Next
Energy Marketers of America
IL Corn Growers Association
Independent Natural Food Retailers Association
Independent Professional Seed Association
Iowa Corn Growers Association.
Local Business Institute
Local First Arizona
Local Return
Louisville Independent Business Alliance
Lowcountry Local First
Main Street Alliance
Minnesota Grocers Association
Missouri Grocers Association
National Community Pharmacists Association

National Grocers Association
ND Soybean Growers Association
New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association North Dakota Corn Growers Association
North Dakota Grocers Association
Northern Pulse Growers Association
Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association
Oklahoma Grocers Association
Provender Alliance
R-CALF USA
Responsible Online Commerce Coalition
Retail Grocers Association MO & KS
Spokane Independent Metro Business Alliance (SIMBA) Small Business Majority
Texas Corn Producers Association
Washington Food Industry Association
Wisconsin Grocers Association
Workplace Solutions Association