Fund the Antitrust Agencies That Fight Price-Gouging Monopolies

Four firms slaughter 85% of US beef and average markups nearly tripled from 1980 to 2016.

A letter to your members of Congress. Facts checked September 23, 2026.

The explainer behind this letter Antitrust How monopoly power sets your prices and pay, and the laws against it

The Letter

Subject Keep the FTC and DOJ Antitrust Division Funded and Aggressive

A few large firms now control the things we buy every week. Four companies slaughter 85% of America's beef, up from 36% in 1980. One firm owns Ray-Ban, Oakley, and LensCrafters. When a market has no real competition, the dominant firm can raise prices and cut what it pays workers and suppliers, because customers and employees have nowhere else to go.

The average markup over cost rose from 21% in 1980 to 61% by 2016, almost all of it at the biggest firms. A 2024 review of the research estimates pay would be 15% to 50% higher without employers' market power. This is money out of working families' pockets.

The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department's Antitrust Division are the federal agencies that take these companies on, and the companies can outspend them in court many times over. When the agencies are staffed, the law works: they blocked the Kroger-Albertsons grocery merger and won two monopoly rulings against Google.

Please vote to fully fund the FTC and the DOJ Antitrust Division in this year's budget, so the laws already on the books get enforced.

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U.S. Capitol switchboard: (202) 224-3121

I'm calling to ask my representative to fund the FTC and the DOJ Antitrust Division.
Four companies slaughter 85% of US beef. The average markup over cost nearly tripled from 1980 to 2016, and research estimates pay would be 15 to 50% higher without employer market power.
These agencies blocked the Kroger-Albertsons merger and won two monopoly rulings against Google. They only work if they're funded.
Please vote to fully fund the FTC and the Antitrust Division in this year's budget.

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The Facts Behind the Ask

85% of US beef is slaughtered by four firms, up from 36% in 1980 (source)
21% to 61% rise in average firm markup over cost from 1980 to 2016 (source)
15 to 50% how much higher pay would be without employer market power, per a 2024 research review (source)

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