Arlen Specter: “I am not introducing the bill today, but I am putting it forward so that my colleagues may consider it and it may be…”

“I am not introducing the bill today, but I am putting it forward so that my colleagues may consider it and it may be considered by the witnesses who are going to be testifying before the Judiciary Committee on March 14. I am putting it in the public view to solicit comments and to solicit responses and ideas as to the effectiveness or propriety or desirability of such legislation. I do so tentatively because it is a very complicated subject, and there have been relatively few modifications of the antitrust laws in the United States. The basic antitrust law under which we operate is more than a century old. The Sherman Act, enacted in 1890, made it unlawful to enter into a contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade and prohibited monopolization. Then, 24 years later, we enacted the Clayton Act, which prohibits unlawful tying, corporate mergers and acquisitions that reduce competition and interlocking directorates, which lead principally to substantial restraint on trade. Those are the two principal statutes that mold the antitrust laws in the United States.…”