Karen Handel: “I thank Chairman Goodlatte for the opportunity to bring this bill forward. I rise today in support of H.R. 5645, the…”

“I thank Chairman Goodlatte for the opportunity to bring this bill forward. I rise today in support of H.R. 5645, the Standard Merger and Acquisition Reviews Through Equal Rules Act, or the SMARTER Act. Mr. Speaker, the SMARTER Act is a much-needed piece of legislation to harmonize and modernize our antitrust procedures. Despite the shared responsibilities for the antitrust review between the FTC and the DOJ, both agencies follow dramatically different review processes, meaning that businesses are held to conflicting standards and procedures, depending on which agency actually conducts the review. And that review, as Chairman Goodlatte pointed out, is essentially a coin toss. We can do better than that. The SMARTER Act in no way weakens or undermines our antitrust review process. It does not prevent or hinder either agency from conducting a full and thorough review. Rather, the SMARTER Act actually strengthens the antitrust review process by injecting greater consistency, more transparency, and enhance consumer protection when we have these mergers and acquisitions. With that, I urge my colleagues to support the SMARTER Act.”