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Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I rise in strong support of H.R. 3843. This bipartisan package of commonsense antitrust reforms would bring a whole lot of much-needed improvements to the administration of our Federal antitrust laws.

First, it would update our merger filing fees to reduce the financial burden on the vast majority of filers. Second, it would implement the State Antitrust Enforcement Venue Act to allow State attorneys general to benefit from the same protection as Federal antitrust enforcers so that their enforcement actions cannot just be transferred out of their State to more defendant-friendly jurisdictions. And, third, this legislation would require companies that submit premerger filings with the FTC and Department of Justice to notify the Agencies of any subsidies or support that they receive from foreign countries of concern such as China, Russia, and Iran. This will allow our antitrust enforcers to ensure that American markets are not being manipulated by hostile States.

Finally, in addition to simply being good policy, these reforms are the product of bipartisan cooperation, exemplifying the model for future bipartisan cooperation on antitrust legislation.

I, therefore, stand in strong support of this legislation and in support of this request.

I would like to yield my time to the distinguished Senator from Minnesota.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 3843, which was received from the House and is at the desk; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, it is unfortunate that an objection has been lodged. I think I disagree with every single assertion in there. It is not what this bill does, not in the slightest. This bill does not take the position that big is bad. I am well familiar with the ``big is bad'' theory. That is not what this is. The merger fees are being reduced for, like, 85 percent of all filers. This simply allows them to do what they need to do and nothing more. It is unfortunate.

I am thankful to my cosponsor, Senator Klobuchar, who is the lead sponsor of this bill, for the bipartisan effort in which she has managed this.

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