09 July 2021
President Biden will sign an executive order on Friday promoting 72 initiatives across more than a dozen agencies that aim to reduce corporate consolidation, increase competition and offer benefits to consumers, workers, farmers and small businesses.
Why it matters: It's a sweeping push to fulfill Biden's goals of making the U.S. economy more dynamic and fair, as the administration seeks to crack down on highly concentrated industries like Big Tech and compete more effectively with China.
- "Having healthy competition is vital to an effective capitalist system,” Brian Deese, Biden’s top economic adviser, told the New York Times. “It is a driver of higher wages, lower prices, more innovation and more business creation."
Details: Among other things, the order will:
- Establish an administration policy of "greater scrutiny of mergers, especially by dominant internet platforms."
- Ban or limit non-compete agreements and occupational licensing requirements that impede economic mobility.
- Lower prescription drug prices by supporting state and tribal programs that will import safe and cheaper drugs from Canada.
- Allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter at drug stores.
- Push airlines to refund money when they lose bags or when the in-flight Wi-Fi doesn’t work
- Ban excessive early termination fees on internet bills, require clear disclosure of plan costs to facilitate comparison shopping, and end landlord exclusivity arrangements that stick tenants with only a single internet option.
- Encourage the FCC to reinstate net neutrality rules prohibiting the blocking, throttling or paid prioritization of web traffic that were repealed by former President Trump's FCC, the sources said.
- Increase opportunities for small businesses by directing all federal agencies to promote greater competition through their procurement and spending decisions.
The order will establish a White House Competition Council, led by Deese, to monitor progress on these initiatives.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.