Thread by @leah_nylen

Sen. Klobuchar announces at Sen Judiciary antitrust hearing that Lina Khan has been named FTC chair. Trying to confirm with the WH.

"I would also note Sen. Lee that Lina Khan was just named the chair of the FTC, an interesting development from an antitrust standpoint," she said.

Confirmed. Official announcement from the White House TK but sources familiar with the plans say Biden will name Khan as chair.

Sneaky move on the WH's part: some Republicans might have been more likely to oppose her nomination if she was announced as chair rather than commissioner.

Khan will be the first non-white chair of the FTC. The chair has a lot of power over the direction of the agency, what cases or rulemakings it chooses to focus time and money on

I have had some Qs on this. Edith Ramirez (FTC chair under Obama) who identifies as Latina likely qualifies as the first person of color to chair the agency. I was perhaps erroneously trying to distinguish by saying non-white. Khan is the first person of Asian descent to helm FTC

The FTC has historically been populated almost exclusively by White commissioners. In it's 107-year history it has only had 3 Black commissioners EVER. Two Asian commissioners EVER (one of whom is a current commissioner Rohit Chopra)

Before Ramirez, there was another commissioner who identified as Hispanic (Mary Azcuenaga).

In any event, I highlighted this because the Biden administration has sought to have diverse picks and because there's been an effort to push him to diversify his tech picks specifically politico.com/news/2021/01/0…