In the Media
Kevin Goldstein Discusses Biden Administration’s Competition Legacy with Global Competition Review
In the Media
February 10, 2025
Winston & Strawn partner Kevin Goldstein was quoted in a Global Competition Review article looking back at President Biden’s “whole-of-government” effort to promote competition and encourage stronger enforcement of antitrust laws during his presidency. Biden first announced the initiative in a 2021 executive order that encouraged federal agencies to implement 72 actions intended to promote competition across the U.S. economy. The directives ranged from writing new rules to curbing harmful regulations and analyzing entire industries. The Biden Administration sought to coordinate a whole-government approach through the formation of the White House Competition Council, in which the heads or subheads of 18 federal agencies met periodically to discuss implementation of the executive order.
Kevin said the creation of that council shifted the political conversation and led more competition issues to be considered by agencies beyond the FTC and DOJ, which have primary responsibility for antitrust law enforcement. “Having the White House Competition Council did not change these agencies’ mandates in a big-picture way, but it did get them thinking about competition and increased coordination with the antitrust agencies,” he said.
Kevin also discussed the Biden Administration’s efforts to involve the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in promoting agribusiness competition. Kevin noted that USDA faces conflicting mandates and statues that help farmers maintain higher prices at the expense of pure competition, such as the Capper-Volstead Act—a 1922 law providing farmer cooperatives a limited exemption from the antitrust laws.
