Richard Blumenthal

I appreciate that and I have great respect for, again, the commissioners and the very dedicated professionals that you have working for you at the FTC.

The American people really deserve to know more about these ongoing investigations.

I think you have an obligation to tell us when you think this investigation will be done.

With all due respect, Mr. Chairman--and I do have great respect for you--you're saying it's safe to assume. It is not safe to assume anything.

The urgency of this investigation could not be clearer.

Good outcomes for consumers take time and money, especially where the target of the investigation is a large, well-financed corporation.

Consumers demand and deserve vigorous enforcement from the FTC.

The misuse and abuse of our data represents a threat to consumer safety but also national security.

Misuse of bigness can be in violation of antitrust laws.

Big tech is no longer entitled to that trust if it ever was.

I have been frustrated that there has been no cost to Facebook for catastrophic failure to protect consumers.

Cambridge Analytica should never have happened. It would never have happened if the consent order reached by the FTC with Facebook had been vigorously and adequately enforced.

I will be very blunt. First, thank you all for your service, but thank you for recognizing, as I hope you will, that all too often the FTC has fallen short of that empower/enforcement trust.

Congress has long empowered and directed the Federal Trade Commission to enforce the tools it has now, not to mention new ones that we may give it in such a privacy law.

I think we need to ensure that consumers are protected in this digital age.

That memo needs to be subpoenaed by the House, and my hope is the Senate Judiciary Committee as well. In fact, I have a real hope. I think it's realistic, that my Republican colleagues are going to see this report as a kind of watershed.

In the same way that the firing of James Comey was an obstruction of justice. In the same way that misuse and abuse of the police power to silence critics is a potential obstruction of justice.

The using of this police power against political enemies is characteristic not only of a banana republic but of Saudi Arabia and Russia whose rulers apparently Donald Trump really admires.

The fact that there was actually no prosecution in no way means that there wasn't evidence of criminal intent. In fact, intent to obstruct justice.

I think it's an area that deserves attention at the highest levels.

I would somewhat take issue with the contention that the resources are adequate now because in this war, we're losing.

I hope that European authorities will investigate.

Is there anybody here who believes that American citizens deserve less privacy protection than European citizens?

This incident further highlights the need for a closer look at how we might structure data breach notification in Federal legislation as it is sorely concerning to me that an incident affecting this many people did not have to be disclosed…

Is there anybody here who believes that the people of Connecticut or anywhere else in the Nation should have less privacy protection than the people of California?