Praise between Democrats and Republicans is in short supply these days, but Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, called out Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan on Tuesday as "doing a pretty good job," The Hill reported.
Speaking at Bloomberg's "RemedyFest" technology forum, Vance said. "A lot of my Republican colleagues look at Lina Khan ... and they say, 'Well, Lina Khan is sort of engaged in some sort of fundamental evil thing. And I guess I look at Lina Khan as one of the few people in the Biden administration that I think is doing a pretty good job."
Vance noted his support of Khan's antitrust enforcement, most notably as it pertains to tech firms, makes him unique among many of his Republican colleagues.
"But the fundamental question to me is how do we build a competitive marketplace, that is pro-innovation, pro-competition, that allows consumers to have the right choices and isn't just so obsessed on pricing power within the market that it ignores all the other things that really matter," Vance said.
Although Vance remains one of the lone Republican advocates of antitrust reform, he was cautious that as the FTC encourages competition it won't hamper the free exchange of ideas.
"Sometimes I worry some of the people across the spectrum I tend to agree with on competition policy, that maybe their instinct is to be a little too pro-censorship," Vance said.
Vance's praise of Khan runs counter to many of his Republican colleagues in the House.
For almost a year the House Oversight Committee has been investigating Khan following allegations that she abused her power and ignored federal ethics law when it came to certain antitrust cases.
Khan has been accused of promoting "hipster antitrust" where traditional customer welfare is secondary to other factors such as income inequality.
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