Washington, D.C. — In response to the release of a new funding bill from the House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee, which includes a significant cut to the Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s requested budget along with a cap on the amount of money the Division gets from merger filing fees, and hiring limitations, the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“House Republicans are not fully funding the Antitrust Division—this is a pro-Ticketmaster, pro-Google, pro-Apple, and pro-UnitedHealth agenda,” said Morgan Harper, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Despite having even fewer attorneys than it did in the 1970s, Jonathan Kanter’s Antitrust Division is securing unprecedented wins to turn the tide on market concentration across the economy. Appropriators should be bolstering the Antitrust Division in this moment, not kneecapping it by limiting hiring and reducing funds Congress authorized through the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act. House Democrats must take a firm stand against this problematic proposal and offer an amendment in markup to give the Antitrust Division the resources necessary to enforce the law.”

The latest version of the House Appropriations Committee’s 2025 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act includes a significant cut to the Antitrust Division’s requested budget. The House Appropriations Committee only allocates $192.776 million to the Division, which is a whopping $40 million below last year’s level and $95 million below the President’s request. It also includes a rider that would cap the amount of fees the Division receives from the bipartisan Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act—which was passed in 2022 with the intent of giving Antitrust Division full access to the fees it collects when companies file for merger authorization—and includes another rider that would broadly prohibit the Division from hiring additional staff. House Republicans’ proposed bill would openly and deliberately disregard the will of Congress by limiting the DOJ’s access to these funds. With cases against some of the biggest monopolies in the economy already in progress or looming, the additional funds would allow the Division to hire more attorneys and staff to effectively enforce the law.

As Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter said at an oversight hearing last year, “Our enforcement is efficient, effective, and saves taxpayers billions of dollars a year. For every dollar Congress invests in the Antitrust Division, we deliver returns to the American public at a multiple that would be the envy of Wall Street. While I’m proud of the work we are doing, we lack the resources to fully address these challenges.”

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.