Is the Justice Department staff trying to rush the satellite merger through?
Two House lawmakers on an antitrust task force wrote to the attorney general this week in response to such reports. Reuters carried that story.
Reps. John Conyers and Steve Chabot wrote, “We were dismayed to learn of recent press reports suggesting that Justice Department staff may be trying to rush through the merger before you have an opportunity to fully participate, and that Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Thomas O. Barnett may intend to grant the merger over the objections of department staff.”
Conyers is a Democrat, Chabot a Republican.
Reuters noted that while lawmakers can hold hearings to air concerns about mergers, they have no direct say in whether transactions are approved.
