FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

Performance Plan

Fiscal Year 2004 through Fiscal Year 2005

&

President’s Management Agenda 

 
Table of Contents 

Page

Annual Performance Plan ............................................................................................... 1 

Annual Performance Measures ....................................................................................... 2 

Fiscal Year 2004 Performance Plan 

 Consumer Protection ........................................................................................... 5 

 Maintaining Competition .....................................................................................17 

Fiscal Year 2005 Performance Plan 

 Consumer Protection ..........................................................................................31 

 Maintaining Competition ....................................................................................43 

President’s Management Agenda ...................................................................................57 

Federal Trade Commission Performance Plan 

 Fiscal Year 2005
1 

Annual Performance Plan Objectives by Program FTE 

Federal Trade Commission Plan Objectives by Program FTE

Performance Plan 

Fiscal Year 2004 Fiscal Year 2005

CP CP CP Prgm. CP CP CP Prgm.

Obj. 1 Obj. 2 Obj. 3 Total Obj. 1 Obj. 2 Obj. 3 Total

Advertising Practices 7 55 2 64 7 56 2 65

Marketing Practices 13 127 5 145 13 128 5 146

Financial Practices 6 46 2 54 6 50 2 58

Enforcement 3 50 2 55 3 51 2 56

Planning & Information 47 2 4 53 47 3 4 54

International Consumer 

Protection 2417 2518

Consumer & Business 

Education 0 0 16 16 0 0 17 17

Economic & Consumer Policy 

Analysis 0426 0426

Program Management 6 19 3 28 6 20 3 29

CP Mission Support 28 101 12 141 28 104 12 144

112 408 49 569 112 421 50 583

Fiscal Year 2004 Fiscal Year 2005

MC MC MC Prgm. MC MC MC Prgm.

Obj. 1 Obj. 2 Obj. 3 Total Obj. 1 Obj. 2 Obj. 3 Total

Premerger Notification 17 0 11 28 17 0 11 28

Merger & Joint Venture 

Enforcement 11 182 12 205 11 182 12 205

Merger & Joint Venture 

Compliance 1 9 1 11 1 9 1 11

Nonmerger Enforcement 6 95 5 106 6 98 5 109

Nonmerger Compliance 0 7 0 7 0 7 0 7

Antitrust Policy Analysis 2 3 2 7 2 3 2 7

Other Direct Mission 4 9 3 16 4 9 3 16

MC Mission Support 13 101 11 125 13 104 11 128

Total Mission 54 406 45 505 54 412 45 511

Consumer Protection Mission

Total Mission

Maintaining Competition Mission
2 

Fiscal Years 1999—2005 

Annual Performance Measures 

Federal Trade Commission Performance Measures

Performance Plan 

 FY 1999 

Actual

FY 2000 

Actual

FY 2001 

Actual

FY 2002

Actual

FY 2003 

Actual

FY 2004 

Target

FY 2005 

Target

Measure 1.1.1: (FY 2001-2005) Annual number of consumer 

complaints and inquiries entered into database.

---- ---- 430,000 680,000 944,000 700,000 750,000

Measure 1.1.2: (FY 2003-2005) Annual number of consumer 

complaints and inquiries related to identity theft entered into 

database.

---- ---- ---- ---- 321,000 250,000 300,000

Measure 1.2.1: (FY 1999-2005) Dollar savings for consumers 

from FTC actions which stop fraud.

$454 

million

$265 

million

$487 

million

$561 

million

$606.3 

million

$400 

million

$400 

million

Measure 1.2.2: (FY 2001-2002) Total expenditures of deceptive 

or unfair advertising campaigns stopped.

---- ---- $86 

million

$40 

million

---- ---- ----

Measure 1.2.3: (FY 2003-2005) Number of data searches 

conducted by FTC and other law enforcement personnel of the 

FTC’s Consumer Sentinel.

---- ---- ---- ---- 27,685 24,000 26,000

Measure 1.2.4: (FY 2003-2005) Number of data searches 

conducted by law enforcement personnel reviewing the FTC’s 

Identity Theft complaints.

---- ---- ---- ---- 2,167 1,700 1,850

Measure 1.3.1: (FY 1999-2005) Number of education 

publications distributed to or accessed electronically by 

consumers.

8.6 

million

 11.0 

million

15.0 

million

19.3 

million

28.0 

million

15.0 

million

20.0 

million

Measure 1.3.2: (FY 2003-2005) Annual number of education 

publications related to Identity Theft distributed or accessed 

electronically.

---- ---- ---- ---- 3.0 

million

2.5 

million

3.0 

million

Measure 1.3.3: (FY 2003-2005) Annual number of Spanishlanguage education publications distributed or accessed 

electronically.

---- ---- ---- ---- 458,000 400,000 500,000

Objective 1.3–Prevent consumer injury through education:

Consumer Protection Mission 

Objective 1.1–Identify fraud, deception, and unfair practices that cause the greatest consumer injury.

Goal 1: Prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.

Objective 1.2–Stop fraud, deception and unfair practices through law enforcement:
Federal Trade Commission 3 Performance Measures

Performance Plan 

Fiscal Years 1999—2005 

Annual Performance Measures 

 FY 1999 

Actual

FY 2000 

Actual

FY 2001 

Actual

FY 2002

Actual

FY 2003 

Actual

FY 2004 

Target

FY 2005 

Target

Measure 2.1.1: (FY 2001-2004) Percent of HSR second requests 

resulting in enforcement action.

---- ---- 68% 68% 70.0% 60-80% 60-80%

Measure 2.1.2: (FY 1999-2003) Number of nonmerger 

investigations opened per year.

45 25 56 59 50 ---- ----

Measure 2.1.3: (FY 2004-2005) Percent of nonmerger 

investigations which result in enforcement action.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 60-80% 60-80%

Measure 2.2.1: (FY 1999-2005) Positive outcome of cases 

brought by FTC due to alleged violations.

80% 95% 94% 100% 100% 80% 80%

Measure 2.2.2: (FY 1999-2003) Dollar savings for consumers 

resulting from FTC actions stopping anticompetitive mergers.

$1,200 

million

$2,980 

million

$2,500 

million

$726 

million

$292 

million

---- ----

Measure 2.2.3: (FY 2004-2005) Volume of commerce in markets 

in which FTC took action to prevent anticompetitive mergers.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- $40 

billion

$40 

billion

Measure 2.2.4: (FY 2001-2003) Dollar savings for consumers 

resulting from FTC actions stopping anticompetitive nonmerger 

activity.

---- ---- $157 

million

$86 

million

$211 

million

---- ----

Measure 2.2.5: (FY 2004-2005) Volume of commerce in markets 

in which FTC took action to prevent anticompetitive conduct.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- $20 

billion

$20 

billion

Measure 2.3.1: (FY 2001-2003) Quantify number of education 

and outreach efforts.

---- ---- Determine 

Baseline 

(141)

285 306 ---- ----

Measure 2.3.2: (FY 2001-2003) Quantify number of hits on 

antitrust information on FTC Web site.

---- ---- Determine 

Baseline 

(2.6 million)

4.4 

million

Over 

10 million

---- ----

Measure 2.3.3: (FY 2004-2005) Measure and establish 

appropriate targets for the number of hits on the FTC antitrust 

Web site relevant to business and legal communities.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Compare to

Baseline

Compare to

Baseline

Measure 2.3.4: (FY 2004-2005) Measure and establish 

appropriate targets for the number of hits on the FTC antitrust 

Web site relevant to policy makers and the general public.

---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Compare to

Baseline

Compare to

Baseline

Objective 2.3–Prevent consumer injury through education:

Objective 2.1–Identify anticompetitive mergers and practices that cause the greatest consumer injury:

Objective 2.2–Stop anticompetitive mergers and practices through law enforcement:

Maintaining Competition Mission 

Goal 2: Prevent anticompetitive mergers and other anticompetitive business practices in the marketplace.
4 
5 

Consumer Protection Mission 

Goal 1: To prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.

 

Objective 1.1: Identify fraud, deception, and unfair practices that cause the greatest 

consumer injury.

FY 2004 Budgeted Resources: 112 FTE $20,769,000 

To identify the most prevalent and serious forms of fraud and deception, the FTC relies 

on its consumer complaint database, which is accessible to an increasing number of law 

enforcement partners. The FTC’s database has grown dramatically in past years, and the 

FTC staff has recruited many new law enforcement partners at home and abroad. 

The FTC has created the largest database of consumer complaints in the world. 

Complaints are collected by the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, which responds to 

calls to its toll-free numbers and to postal and online complaints. The FTC also receives 

complaint data from a broad array of public and private organizations in the United 

States and Canada. Through December 2003, the FTC’s database had captured more 

than 3.2 million entries. 

The FTC shares complaint data through Consumer Sentinel, a secure Web site that 

provides access to fraud and identity theft complaints to more than 940 law enforcement 

organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Consumer Sentinel is a unique 

and effective enforcement tool that permits law enforcers to access data at their desks. 

Although the FTC is not empowered to act on behalf of individual consumers, consumer 

complaint data accessed through Consumer Sentinel enables the FTC and its law 

enforcement partners to coordinate enforcement efforts and to identify and target the 

most serious consumer problems. The FTC also will continue to work with its 

international partners to access and share the information contained in econsumer.gov, 

an FTC-created Web site where consumers can file cross-border complaints. 

The FTC will continue to expand the complaint database and increase its use by 

recruiting and training additional law enforcement partners. The FTC also will continue 

to improve its use of its rich store of data by identifying repeat offenders and sharing this 

information with other law enforcers. Further, the FTC will build on its capacity to 

analyze data quickly to respond to frauds and identity theft in their incipient stages and 

help prevent consumer injury. The data will be used to provide more information to the 

public – giving consumers information to protect themselves from scams and identity 

theft, and informing public policy discussions about consumer protection issues in the 

marketplace. The FTC will continue to collect data on consumers’ experiences and 

general inquiries through follow-up surveys, copytesting, and other methods of 

monitoring the marketplace in order to better target enforcement and education 

resources. The FTC also will continue to enhance its capacity to track and analyze 

privacy-related complaints more effectively. 

In 2004, the FTC will continue to measure its performance by reporting the annual 

number of consumer complaints and inquiries entered into the database relating to 

identity theft. This information directly supports criminal prosecutions as the agency’s 

law enforcement partners with criminal jurisdiction search the database to identify 

malfeasors and victims in connection with investigations or prosecutions. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
6 

Finally, the Consumer Protection Mission will review its programs in light of the 

consumer fraud and identity theft surveys of several thousand consumers initiated in FY 

2002. Through these surveys, the FTC seeks to determine the representative value of 

complaints in the database. In FY 2004, the agency is exploring whether to establish a 

“rule of thumb” to infer how many cases of fraud have occurred for every complaint 

received. The FTC also will seek to use the survey results to determine whether certain 

classes or types of consumers are not represented in the database. After receipt and 

review of the survey results, the FTC will review its enforcement efforts to ensure that it is 

addressing the most costly and prevalent forms of fraud and deception. The survey also 

will allow the FTC to better assess the nature and prevalence of identity theft and to 

judge the effectiveness of agency efforts to assist and educate consumers, identity theft 

victims, law enforcement officials, and industry representatives. 

Privacy Issues

The FTC will continue to emphasize privacy issues in FY 2004. The Fair and Accurate 

Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACT Act), which was signed into law on December 4, 

2003, makes sweeping changes and additions to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). 

The primary features of the FACT Act include making the existing preemption provisions 

permanent and adding several provisions to combat identity theft and to enhance 

accuracy and consumer access to credit information. The FACT Act requires more than 

20 new FTC rules and studies. The FTC will engage in a number of the rulemakings and 

other proceedings with the Federal Reserve Board and other bank regulators. The FACT 

Act also makes the FTC a participant in the newly created Financial Literacy and 

Education Commission. 

The FTC also will maintain its scrutiny of the privacy implications of new and emerging 

technologies, and will continue to implement the December 2002 amendments to the 

Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The FTC also will devote resources to identity theft, 

credit reporting, and Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) matters. The FTC 

will continue to use its data mining and analytical skills to develop custom investigative 

reports that will enable criminal law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute 

appropriate identity theft cases. Finally, the FTC will maintain its review and 

identification of Web sites that are collecting personal information from children without 

first obtaining parental consent. Through education, voluntary compliance efforts, and 

law enforcement, the FTC will seek to bring these entities into compliance with COPPA. 

Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (Spam)

Thousands of unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) messages are forwarded to the FTC 

daily by groups and individuals worldwide. Since 1998, the FTC has maintained an 

electronic mailbox ( to which Internet customers are encouraged to forward spam. This 

spam is stored in a searchable database enabling the FTC staff to track trends and 

identify law enforcement targets when researching potential cases. The FTC will continue 

to work to expand the database’s capacity and further develop the capabilities to search 

and analyze the data contained there. 

The Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 

(CAN-SPAM Act), which was signed into law on December 16, 2003, addresses a wide 

range of practices in the sending of spam. The CAN-SPAM Act prohibits falsifying either 

the content or the source of e-mail; prohibits abusive means of obtaining e-mail 

addresses to send a high volume of unwanted messages; requires that commercial e-mail 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
7 

be so identified; requires senders of commercial e-mail to allow recipients to “opt out” of 

future e-mail messages; and requires a warning label for e-mail with sexually oriented 

material. The CAN-SPAM Act directs the FTC to report to Congress on the feasibility of a 

Do Not Spam Registry and creates new enforcement approaches and penalties. 

1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies 

• Expand the FTC’s comprehensive information system (consumer complaint database) to keep pace with the global marketplace. 

• Strengthen capabilities to analyze the increasing volume of complaint data. 

• Continuously upgrade Consumer Sentinel’s services to assist law enforcement 

partners. 

• Ensure the privacy and security of database information. 

• Search for better methods of collecting information to keep abreast of new 

consumer protection problems in traditional markets and electronic markets. 

• Continue to integrate e-government initiatives into the expanse of mission 

activities. 

 2. FY 2004 Implementation Plan 

• Conduct rulemakings and studies as required by the FACT and CAN-SPAM Acts. 

• Recruit new partners in the United States and abroad to contribute complaint 

data to Consumer Sentinel; add to the group of state, local, federal, and 

international law enforcement agencies accessing information in Consumer 

Sentinel; and train new partners in how to take full advantage of its features. 

• Facilitate the exchange of data with law enforcement officials in other countries; 

and expand the use of econsumer.gov by recruiting additional partners, providing 

more information on the Web site, and increasing complaint collection and 

sharing. 

• Enhance analysis of data to make it more useful to private and public sector 

partners. 

• Enhance the capacity to collect privacy-related complaints in the database. 

• Increase the number and utility of identity theft complaints in the database. 

 

• Monitor the marketplace to identify allegedly illegal practices that may not be fully 

captured by the database by, for example, using technology to monitor the 

Internet and conducting surveys. 

• Collect data on consumers’ experiences and general inquiries through surveys, 

focus groups, research, readability studies, and other methods of monitoring the 

marketplace in order to better target enforcement and education resources. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
8 

• Identify consumer protection issues emerging as a result of changes in the 

marketplace, and explore them through public workshops, hearings, surveys, etc. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

3. FY 2004 Performance Measures 

 In FY 2004, the agency will: 

• Increase the number of consumer complaints and inquiries in the FTC’s 

comprehensive information system by at least 700,000. 

• As part of the increase in total consumer complaints and inquiries, enter at least 

250,000 consumer complaints and inquiries relating to identity theft. 

The FTC continues to focus law enforcement resources on the most serious consumer protection problems identified through its consumer complaint database. 

The data enables the FTC to rapidly detect and respond to fraud, deception, and 

other illegal practices, and to help prevent consumer injury in a timely fashion. 

Furthermore, by broadly sharing its fraud complaints through Consumer Sentinel

with external partners, the FTC can enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement 

agencies across the United States, Canada, and Australia. The FTC also continues 

to focus on identity theft and uses its resources to collect information from identity 

theft victims and share that information with its law enforcement partners. 

4. Program Evaluations 

• Use the results of the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys, initiated in 2002, 

to evaluate the representative value of complaints entered into the database and 

whether an increase in the number of complaints is due to an increase in the 

occurrence of fraud or an increase in the reporting of fraud by consumers. 

• Assess whether the FTC’s law enforcement and education efforts are addressing 

the leading problem areas identified by the complaint database. 

• Determine the extent to which Consumer Sentinel services are used by law 

enforcement partners. 

• Review current functions, determine what changes or upgrades to the databases 

would be helpful, and implement those changes. 

• Assess privacy and security protections for the database by reviewing complaints, 

if any, and evaluating the policies in place. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
9 

Objective 1.2: Stop fraud, deception, and unfair practices through law enforcement.

FY 2004 Budgeted Resources: 408 FTE $73,729,000 

The FTC operates a wide range of programs to help stop fraud, deception, and unfair 

practices. The FTC will continue to focus efforts on high-tech fraud, deceptive marketing 

of health care products and services, consumer privacy, and international law 

enforcement, among other areas. 

Privacy

The FTC will continue to highlight the protection of consumers’ private information in FY 

2004. The agency’s approach in this arena will encompass both enforcement and 

education, as the FTC focuses on telemarketing, spam, identity theft, and pretexting, as 

well as enforcement of COPPA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the TSR. The TSR was 

amended in December 2002, and the FTC will continue initiatives to maintain a 

centralized National Do Not Call Registry and enforce violations of the Rule. Other 

enforcement efforts in privacy will center on cases involving sensitive personal or 

financial information, and claims touting the privacy and security features of products 

and services. 

E-commerce

The FTC has been mindful that the growth of e-commerce may spur the growth of online 

fraud and deception. Law enforcement resources will be used to attack new forms of 

complex and fast-moving high-tech fraud, a continued growth in deceptive online health 

claims, and online privacy practices that violate Section 5 of the FTC Act and COPPA. As 

needed, the FTC will continue to train its law enforcement partners to keep pace with 

technology-based scams. As the Internet grows, so does the FTC’s coordinated law 

enforcement efforts to meet the resulting consumer protection challenges. 

Health Care Products and Services

The deceptive marketing of products that may affect consumer health and safety remains 

an FTC priority. The FTC focuses on dietary supplements and other health products 

promoted on the Internet. Consumer demand for these products is increasing, and 

fraudulent or deceptive claims about the products can pose risks to consumers’ 

well-being. 

 

Globalization

As the marketplace becomes more global, the FTC is involved on two fronts: law 

enforcement and policy development. With respect to law enforcement, cases increasingly 

involve an international component as defendants, their operations, or their assets are 

moved offshore. This makes it difficult to locate and stop scams or to provide redress to 

consumers. The FTC is meeting these challenges by building international partnerships 

to assist in identifying and pursuing these cases. As the FTC continues to develop 

initiatives relating to cross-border fraud, it will work to measure and report its 

performance in this area. On the policy side, the FTC is promoting international 

development of market-oriented consumer protection policies. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
10 

 1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Lead a nationwide attack on telemarketing fraud by continuing to coordinate 

federal and state law enforcement sweeps, and by using Consumer Sentinel data to 

identify targets and coordinate with other federal and state agencies to prosecute 

actions against these targets. 

• Target high-tech frauds that have moved to the Internet and exploit other new 

technologies, and increase the capacity to respond rapidly, with enforcement and 

other approaches, to these fast-moving technology-based scams. 

• Develop additional international law enforcement arrangements to tackle the 

growing problem of cross-border fraud. 

• Ensure that basic consumer protection principles are applied as new markets 

emerge, and develop policies to address new consumer protection issues resulting 

from changes in the marketplace. 

• Monitor national advertising in print, television, radio, and online to identify illegal 

practices that may not be captured fully by the FTC’s database. 

• Focus law enforcement on violations that create the greatest risks to consumer 

health, safety, and economic well-being. 

• Encourage self-regulation and private initiatives, where appropriate, in lieu of 

regulation or law enforcement. 

2. FY 2004 Implementation Plan

• Target the most significant areas of telemarketing and other types of fraud. 

• Stop the most pernicious Internet-related scams, such as unauthorized charges on 

consumers’ phone bills through dialer programs, the misuse of pre-acquired 

customer account information, and deceptive spam, as they are identified through 

the Consumer Sentinel, the spam database, Internet surfs, and other monitoring 

activities. 

• Enforce the provisions of the TSR dealing with pre-acquired account information; 

continue to implement TSR amendments creating a National Do Not Call Registry; 

and increase enforcement of privacy-related amendments to the TSR. 

• Continue enforcement activities against fraudulent and deceptive spam promoting 

chain letters, pyramid schemes, or other kinds of “get-rich-quick” schemes. 

• Recruit new local, state, federal, and international law enforcement partners for 

anti-fraud initiatives and conduct joint enforcement sweeps with law enforcement 

partners. 

• Further initiatives to fight cross-border fraud. 

• Continue to ensure that the FTC’s Internet Lab keeps pace with technology and 

supports rapid response law enforcement capability. 

 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
11 

• Target law enforcement efforts at advertising and marketing practices that are 

most injurious to consumers; identify targets based on complaint data and other 

forms of monitoring. 

• Identify industries where a high percentage of companies are not in compliance 

with provisions of consumer protection laws or regulations and bring those 

companies into compliance through law enforcement and business guidance, or by 

encouraging self-regulatory programs. 

• Continue enforcement efforts against the abusive practice of pretexting that 

causes consumers concern about the security of their personal financial 

information, and bring privacy and security cases involving sensitive information 

and claims touting the privacy and security features of products and services. 

• Ensure that there is broad compliance with consumer protection laws, rules, and 

guides in the electronic marketplace; target law enforcement to the most serious 

violations. 

• Implement regulations governing franchising, telemarketing sales, and telephone 

billing services. 

• Address cutting-edge consumer protection issues in emerging areas – e-commerce, 

globalization, privacy of personal information, and the marketing of new products 

and services, and newly deregulated services. 

3. FY 2004 Performance Measures

 In FY 2004, the agency will: 

 

• Save consumers approximately $400 million by stopping Internet scams and other 

types of fraud. 

Preventing economic injury to consumers is the ultimate goal of the FTC’s 

anti-fraud efforts. The FTC saves consumers money each time a fraudulent 

operator is stopped by successful litigation or settlement with the agency. The 

FTC increases these consumer savings by leading joint law enforcement initiatives 

with federal, state, and international partners. The amount of consumer savings 

will vary each year based on the number and types of fraud stopped. 

Consumer savings are calculated by totaling the estimated annual fraudulent 

sales of defendants in the 12 months prior to the FTC’s filing a complaint. The 

calculation actually may underestimate the agency’s impact because it assumes 

that the fraud would have continued for only one more year and it ignores any 

deterrent effect of FTC enforcement. It provides, however, a uniform method for 

calculating savings and minimizes speculation about the likely duration of the 

fraud. 

• Reduce consumer injury through law enforcement by providing law enforcement 

access to essential data through the Consumer Sentinel. In FY 2004, the goal is 

that FTC and other law enforcement personnel will conduct 24,000 data searches 

of the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel complaints. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
12 

• Of those 24,000 data searches, 1,700 will be conducted by other law enforcement 

personnel reviewing the FTC’s identity theft complaints. 

The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel and identity theft data provide a rich source of 

information for the FTC staff and its law enforcement partners as they investigate 

and pursue instances of potential fraud, deception, and unfair practices. The 

expanded access to and use of this information is critical as the FTC works to stop 

these practices. By tracking the number of accesses by both internal and external 

law enforcement personnel, the FTC hopes to demonstrate the value of the 

information contained in these databases. Generally, those personnel who are 

accessing the system are seeking information directly relevant to enforcement 

action – whether they are building a case, investigating a company, identifying 

potential witnesses, or gathering information for a sentencing hearing. In 

particular, the FTC will track the number of accesses that external agencies 

perform of the identity theft data in evaluating the usefulness of its identity theft 

programs to outside law enforcement agencies.

4. Program Evaluations 

• Assess the results of the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys and the overall 

trends revealed by review of the database to determine whether the amount of 

resources dedicated to various programs should be altered or the programs’ 

priorities modified, and create new performance measures, if appropriate. 

• Assess the litigation success rate for obtaining preliminary relief in fraud cases. 

• Determine the success of leveraging resources through coordinated joint law 

enforcement initiatives. 

• Evaluate the success of self-regulatory programs. 

• Determine whether there are new industries or areas of marketing that require law 

enforcement or that may be appropriate for self-regulation. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
13 

Objective 1.3: Prevent consumer injury through education.

FY 2004 Budgeted Resources: 49 FTE $9,346,000 

The FTC’s education efforts target identified areas of fraud and deception, and areas 

where information gaps are greatest because of rapid changes in the marketplace, such 

as new technology-based products and services, privacy of personal information, new 

types of payment systems, and global transactions. The agency creatively uses new 

technologies and public and private partnerships to reach new and under-served 

audiences, particularly those who may not seek information directly from the FTC. 

The FTC will expand its consumer education program to reach these new audiences, 

build new partnerships to help distribute its messages, and continue to create and 

support education Web sites, including the international site, econsumer.gov. In addition, nearly every case that the FTC brings possesses a consumer education component – 

targeting the message to the fraud that has occurred. To reach the expanding population 

of Hispanic consumers in the United States, the FTC instituted an Hispanic Outreach 

Program in FY 2002. The agency also cooperates with organizations such as the NAACP 

and the National Council of La Raza to work with minority communities, and partners 

with the Department of Defense on Military Sentinel – a resource for members of the 

military and their families. The FTC will continue to publicize its consumer complaint 

and identity theft Web site addresses and toll-free numbers in an ongoing effort to 

increase public awareness of its programs and inform the public of the ways to contact 

the FTC to obtain information or file a complaint. In carrying out these functions, the 

FTC strives to ensure that any publicly disseminated data or information subject to the 

Data Quality Act (section 515 of Public Law 106-554) meets basic quality standards. 

 1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies 

• Focus consumer and business education efforts on areas where fraud, deception, 

unfair practices, and information gaps cause the greatest injury. 

• Creatively use technology, including new interactive media, to extend the reach of 

consumer and business education. 

• Increase public awareness of FTC’s online education materials and the availability 

of its online complaint form and toll-free helplines to provide one-on-one 

information to consumers and increase data collection to support law 

enforcement. 

• Encourage private and public partners to participate in education initiatives. 

 2. FY 2004 Implementation Plan 

• Deliver relevant information to more consumers, industry members, and law 

enforcement partners faster and more efficiently. 

• Focus education on high-profile and emerging issues where consumer information 

gaps are greatest, and on frauds that cause consumers the greatest financial 

injury. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
14 

• Implement a consumer awareness campaign to let consumers know that they 

should report their privacy-related complaints to the FTC and continue an 

outreach program to increase consumer awareness of the privacy information 

required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. 

• Through greater outreach, lead more consumers to the FTC’s Web site (ftc.gov) and 

the “one-stop” government Web site for consumer information (consumer.gov). 

• Expand coverage of FTC messages, including the online information and toll-free 

helplines, through marketing, new products, and technology. 

• Continue efforts to identify and reach under-served audiences, businesses, and 

law enforcement offices. 

3. FY 2004 Performance Measures 

 

 In FY 2004, the agency will:

• Provide education messages online and in print to 15 million recipients. 

Education programs benefit consumers by alerting them to their rights under 

various consumer protection laws and providing practical tips on how to recognize 

and avoid scams and rip-offs. To reach the broadest possible audience, the FTC 

maximizes its use of the national media, the agency’s ftc.gov Web site, and the 

interagency firstgov.gov Web site. The FTC’s messages also reach the public 

through the Consumer Response Center and hundreds of partners who distribute 

FTC materials, link to the FTC Web site, or post FTC messages on their Web sites. 

• As part of the 15 million education messages, provide education messages related 

to identity theft online or in print to 2.5 million recipients. 

The FTC has coordinated with other government agencies and organizations to 

develop and disseminate comprehensive consumer education materials for victims 

of identity theft and those concerned with preventing this crime. The FTC’s most 

popular publication, “Identity Theft: When Bad Things Happen to Your Good 

Name,” is available in print and online. The FTC also distributes CDs containing 

this publication, thus enabling other federal agencies to print and distribute it. 

Thus, the distribution numbers reported in this measure may be lower than actual 

numbers. 

• Continue to build the agency’s Hispanic Outreach Program and, as part of the 15 

million education messages, provide Spanish-language education publications to 

more than 400,000 recipients. 

The FTC first began this program in January 2002 to reach the growing Hispanic 

population in the United States. As of December 2003, the FTC had created a 

dedicated page of the FTC Web site, Proteccion para el Consumidor, to mirror the 

English-language page, and translated more than 65 consumer publications into 

Spanish. It also translated the FTC Consumer Complaint Form and provided a 

translation of the “bestseller” on identity theft – Robo de Identidad: Algo malo 

puede pasarle a su buen nombre. The universal identity theft affidavit has been 

translated into Spanish and also is available on the FTC Web site. The majority of 

the translations of FTC publications should be completed during FY 2003, thus 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
15 

allowing the FTC to establish a baseline and performance targets for subsequent 

years. FY 2004 is first time the agency will measure its performance under this 

new program. 

 4. Program Evaluations 

• Determine the number of publications distributed or accessed online to evaluate 

outreach efforts and identify topics of particular consumer interest. 

• Assess whether the appropriate mix of media is being used to communicate 

consumer education messages and whether the FTC is making the best use of the 

available media and technology. 

• Assess the number and range of public and private organizations that partner with 

FTC to do outreach; the more private and public partners the FTC has, and the 

larger those partners are, the greater its potential to reach different types of 

audiences, both business and consumer. 

• Determine whether the FTC needs to reach new audiences, in light of any changes 

in demographics, advertising, and marketing practices, and as a result of any 

further information from the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys. 

• Review the focus of FTC education efforts and adjust them based on changing 

consumer and business needs. 

 

• Continue to assess the consumer education needs of the Spanish-speaking 

population. Census data shows that the United States has a large and growing 

Spanish-speaking population. Because these consumers may not speak English 

or are non-native speakers of the language, they may be less aware of the nuances 

and the complexities of disclosures, advertisements, or other aspects of consumer 

transactions. The FTC will assess the vulnerabilities of this group and then craft 

a strategy to meet their needs. 

• Review trends or patterns in complaints, if any, filed under the Data Quality Act to 

determine appropriate techniques or strategies for improving the quality of 

publicly disseminated data or information that are subject to the Act.

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2004
16 
17 

Maintaining Competition Mission 

Goal 2: To prevent anticompetitive mergers and other anticompetitive business 

practices in the marketplace. 

Objective 2.1: Identify anticompetitive mergers and practices that cause the greatest 

consumer injury.

FY 2004 Budgeted Resources: 54 FTE $9,042,000 

The FTC seeks to identify mergers and business practices that are anticompetitive and to 

focus its investigative resources on those activities most likely to harm consumers 

significantly. The goal is to avoid overlooking antitrust problems by focusing too narrowly, 

but also to avoid spending resources unproductively by investing in too many 

investigations that do not yield evidence of a problem. 

Most mergers are either competitively neutral or beneficial to consumers, but those few 

that are anticompetitive can impose significant costs on consumers. Mergers vary 

tremendously in their complexity and potential anticompetitive effect. 

Identifying anticompetitive mergers is a top priority in the Maintaining Competition 

Mission. The premerger notification requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act 

provide the FTC with an effective starting point for identifying anticompetitive mergers 

before they are consummated. Amendments to the HSR Act, effective in 2001, changed 

the criteria governing which mergers must be reported under the Act, but the 

amendments did not change the standard of legality for mergers. Consequently, the FTC 

now devotes more attention to the identification of unreported, usually consummated, 

mergers that could harm consumers. Despite the revised HSR filing thresholds and a 

decline in merger activity in 2001-2003 from the historic peak levels reached during the 

late 1990's and 2000, the FTC still faces a demanding merger review workload. 

The recent decline in merger activity has enabled the FTC to renew its focus on the 

nonmerger portion of its Maintaining Competition Mission. Beginning in 2001, the FTC 

has increased significantly its efforts to identify appropriate targets for nonmerger 

investigations, making the balance between merger and nonmerger activities more 

consistent with historic patterns. 

On the nonmerger side, no statutory program comparable to HSR exists to help antitrust 

enforcers identify anticompetitive business practices. The FTC must employ a variety of 

methods to identify potentially anticompetitive practices (for example, consumer and 

competitor complaints, referrals from other government agencies, and monitoring the 

trade press). 

1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Administer the HSR premerger notification program and track and maintain the 

timeliness of merger review under the program. 

• Improve use of the initial 30-day period after HSR filings (or 15 days for a cash 

tender offer or a bankruptcy sale) to determine whether a merger is likely to harm 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
18 

competition, including reducing delays in interagency clearance (i.e., the process 

used by the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division to determine 

which of the two will investigate a particular transaction) and timely review of 

filings to avoid unnecessary extended investigations. 

• Identify emerging trends and focus on potentially anticompetitive business 

practices or other issues that need to be addressed because of changes in the 

economy, technology, and the marketplace through hearings, task forces, Bureau 

of Economics studies, and other means. 

• Continue to examine the scope of exemptions to the antitrust laws to identify 

possible categories of harmful conduct that, while ostensibly protected from 

antitrust challenge, are in fact not exempt from the antitrust laws. 

• Refine the investigative and decisional tools used in both merger and nonmerger 

investigations through continuous learning. 

• Continue to integrate e-government initiatives, such as electronic premerger filing, 

into the expanse of mission activities. 

 2. FY 2004 Implementation Plan

A. All Programs

• Ensure timeliness of review. Monitor the time and resources needed to conduct 

preliminary investigations. Review the progress of all ongoing investigations on at 

least a monthly basis. For mergers filed under the HSR program, maintain 

statistics on the average time needed to “clear” transactions that do not require 

further review. Review and analyze these statistics on a regular basis. 

• Articulate FTC policies and procedures through speeches, electronic and print 

media, and other means to inform potentially aggrieved parties that they may 

lodge complaints with the FTC, as well as to help parties stay in compliance with 

the antitrust laws. 

• Conduct economic studies of the effects of business actions on competition and 

consumer welfare. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

B. Identifying Anticompetitive Mergers

• In the initial review of each HSR filing, determine compliance with reporting 

requirements; promptly assess whether further review is needed to determine if 

the transaction may be anticompetitive. 

• For transactions requiring further review, use the initial 30-day waiting period 

after filing (15 days in certain instances), to investigate and reach a sound and 

well-informed determination of whether the proposed merger raises sufficiently 

serious threat of harm to consumers to expand the investigation by issuing 

requests for additional information (“second requests”) and seeking Commission 

approval for use of compulsory process authority. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
19 

• Continue to refine and improve procedures used in HSR merger investigations to 

avoid undue burden on merging parties while still obtaining the necessary 

information to fulfill the agency’s competition mission. 

• To promote voluntary compliance with HSR premerger notification requirements, 

vigorously pursue violations. Monitor compliance of merging entities and fully 

investigate apparent violations. 

• In light of the statutory increase in HSR filing thresholds effective in FY 2001, 

continue increased efforts to identify mergers that are not subject to HSR 

requirements but that are potentially anticompetitive, using techniques such as (1) 

monitoring the trade press and Internet resources, (2) responding to and following 

up on case leads from Congressional offices, other Executive Branch agencies, and 

state and local government, and (3) encouraging consumers, businesses, and the 

bar to notify the FTC of possibly anticompetitive mergers. 

C. Identifying Anticompetitive Conduct

• Identify potentially anticompetitive nonmerger business practices through the 

same means used to identify potentially anticompetitive mergers not subject to 

HSR, as well as pursuing investigative leads developed by staff in other 

investigations, and using task forces to identify harmful practices in selected 

areas. 

• Devote additional scrutiny to selected issues or industry practices raising 

significant consumer concerns or involving potential for significant consumer 

injury. Continue in-depth studies of important competition issues. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
20 

 3. FY 2004 Performance Measures

 In FY 2004, the agency will:

• Continue effective screening of HSR premerger notification filings to identify those 

that most likely present antitrust concerns, so that between 60% and 80% of HSR 

requests for additional information result in enforcement action.1 In conjunction 

with this measure, and to facilitate evaluation of results, the FTC will also report 

the number of second requests issued each year and the number of merger 

enforcement actions.2

• Effectively target nonmerger investigative resources, so that between 60% and 80% 

of nonmerger investigations in which the Commission issues a resolution 

authorizing the use of compulsory process result in enforcement action.3 In 

conjunction with this measure, and to facilitate evaluation of results, the FTC will 

also report the number of nonmerger investigations opened and the number in 

which the Commission authorizes the use of compulsory process each year. 

Both measures indicate the FTC’s success in identifying matters for 

investigation that are likely sources of harm to consumers. A 

percentage below 60% may suggest that the FTC is targeting its 

resources ineffectively by investigating too many competitively 

benign mergers or practices, while a percentage higher than 80% 

may suggest that the agency is focusing too narrowly and thus 

allowing problematic merger transactions to go forward without 

sufficient review or limiting its focus to only the most obviously 

anticompetitive business practices. 

 4. Program Evaluations

• Review and refine data-monitoring systems relevant to (1) the timeliness of the 

HSR review process and (2) the degree to which appropriate resources are being 

devoted to initial review of each matter prior to issuance of an investigative second 

request. 

• Review significant deviations from the statistical benchmarks for timely and 

efficient review of merger transactions and take corrective action where necessary. 

1 The FTC will compute this measure by dividing the number of second request investigations that result in 

enforcement action during the relevant fiscal year (without regard to when the investigation commenced), by the 

total number of second request investigations that concluded during the year with or without enforcement action 

(again, without regard to when the investigation commenced). “Enforcement action” includes Commission 

authorization of a complaint for preliminary injunction in federal court, issuance of an administrative complaint, 

a consent agreement, or the parties’ abandonment of a proposed transaction based on FTC antitrust concerns. 

2 The FTC also investigates mergers that are not subject to HSR reporting requirements, but there is no 

benchmark directly comparable to the issuance of a second request in those matters, and the overall number of 

non-HSR merger investigations is too small to permit a meaningful statistical measure. 

3 The issuance of a compulsory process resolution indicates that the Commission has found the matter to be 

serious enough to warrant the use of its compulsory process authority and also generally correlates with those 

investigations to which the agency devotes meaningful resources. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
21 

• Conduct periodic meetings between the Director of the Bureau of Competition and 

heads of litigation divisions to ensure that substantive standards are applied 

consistently and uniformly. 

• Assess the significance (quantitatively in terms of the aggregate size of markets 

investigated and potential dollar savings to consumers, and qualitatively in 

deterrence value and precedential significance) of the matters investigated each 

year. 

• Continue to seek improvements in the merger review process to improve further 

the effectiveness and efficiency of investigations; continue to collect public input to 

assist it in enhancing and refining the process. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
22 

Objective 2.2: Stop anticompetitive mergers and practices through law enforcement.

FY 2004 Budgeted Resources: 406 FTE $65,757,000 

The FTC seeks to stop anticompetitive mergers and practices through law enforcement 

activities. Maintaining competitive markets through effective antitrust law enforcement is 

integral to a healthy U.S. economy. The FTC’s antitrust enforcement thus serves a vital 

role in protecting consumers’ interests in lower prices, better quality, and greater 

innovation. 

The FTC seeks to maintain an appropriate balance between its merger and nonmerger 

enforcement, although the resources available for nonmerger work fluctuate depending 

on the merger workload facing the FTC at any given time. Because of the short statutory 

time frame set out for HSR investigations, the FTC must reallocate resources from 

nonmerger enforcement to merger enforcement during periods of peak merger activity to 

meet the statutory deadlines. Over the decade ending in FY 2000, an unprecedented level 

of merger activity required the shifting of resources from nonmerger activities to the 

merger arena. Merger activity has declined to a more manageable level since 2000, 

permitting renewed emphasis on the nonmerger area, but this could change during 2004 

if economic conditions and other factors dictate an increase in merger activity. 

Merger enforcement responsibilities continue to place significant demands on the FTC’s 

resources for the following reasons: (1) long-term trends suggest a continued upward 

trajectory in merger activity – particularly in the size, scope, and complexity of individual 

merger transactions; (2) the number of mergers raising antitrust concerns, not the overall 

number of filings, primarily drives the FTC’s merger workload; and (3) challenging a 

consummated merger typically entails resource-intensive litigation. 

Despite these challenges, the end of the decade-long merger wave in 2000 allowed the 

FTC to restore resources to its nonmerger priorities. Investigations begun in FY 2001 and 

2002 are resulting in more nonmerger enforcement actions in FY 2003. Among the areas 

that the FTC is currently addressing are the scope of antitrust exemption doctrines such 

as Noerr-Pennington and state action, restraints on competition among professionals, and 

anticompetitive abuses of the standards-setting process. 

Two factors place increasing demands on the FTC’s antitrust enforcement mission in both 

the merger and nonmerger segments. FTC antitrust investigations increasingly involve 

high-technology sectors of the economy, such as those that produce computer hardware 

and pharmaceutical products. Moreover, issues in antitrust matters increasingly in 

tersect with intellectual property concerns, raising difficult questions about how to 

reconcile these two different bodies of law with similar goals. As these trends continue, 

the FTC requires more and more specialized technical and legal knowledge and expertise. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
23 

More FTC antitrust cases are requiring costly litigation to resolve. Changes in the 

thresholds for HSR premerger notification requirements4, the FTC’s pursuit of cases 

involving very large potential financial impact5, and the agency’s increased focus on 

cutting-edge legal issues6 all are contributing to a higher litigation workload. 

The FTC must also maintain an effective compliance program so that consumers receive 

the benefits of competition obtained through the FTC’s investigation and litigation efforts. 

This objective focuses on devising and drafting effective compliance orders in individual 

matters, a highly fact-specific process. In addition, the agency conducts general and 

historical analyses on the effectiveness of various kinds of merger and nonmerger 

remedies, such as divestiture orders. The FTC also litigates, when necessary, to vindicate 

its authority to order relief to protect competition.7 As the number and complexity of 

competition cases rise, so do the resource needs of the compliance program associated 

with those cases. 

Merger enforcement saves consumers money by preventing price increases that likely 

would have occurred due to the loss of competition if the merger had gone forward 

unchallenged.8 Nonmerger enforcement similarly benefits consumers by stopping 

anticompetitive activity that raises prices or otherwise restricts competition. While the 

FTC’s actions undeniably bring significant benefits to consumers, the precise calculation 

of the savings of a specific action can be subject to many variables. Thus, while 

consumers benefit from FTC antitrust enforcement, it is very difficult to quantify that 

benefit. Consequently, the FTC will measure its performance in stopping anticompetitive 

mergers and practices by calculating the amount of commerce involved in markets in 

which the agency takes enforcement action. This approach should provide a useful 

means of evaluating the breadth and magnitude of the FTC’s enforcement efforts, while 

avoiding unverifiable estimates of the resulting benefit to consumers. 

 

4 Although the FTC receives notification of fewer proposed mergers in advance because of modifications in the 

HSR reporting thresholds, the agency continues to monitor unreported mergers. Unreported mergers are much 

more likely to have been consummated by the time the FTC can complete an investigation, so any such merger 

that threatens competition likely will require litigation, rather than a pre-consummation consent agreement, to 

obtain relief. 

5 Cases with broad financial stakes can bring tremendous benefits to consumers, but the financial 

considerations also significantly increase the respondents’ incentives to contest the issues rather than settle. 

For example, in Union Oil Company of California, the FTC is litigating charges that the company illegally 

obtained patents on technology used to produce the low-emissions gasoline required in California to protect air 

quality. If the company is permitted to enforce these patents, its competitors would have to pay hundreds of 

millions of dollars annually in royalties for the technology, and about 90 percent of that cost likely would be 

passed on to consumers in the form of higher gasoline prices. 

6 Because the FTC has a unique responsibility to help shape antitrust law and policy, as well as enforce it, its 

cases sometimes focus on areas in which legal standards are not fully developed. Because liability may not be 

clear cut in these instances, costly litigation is more likely. Nevertheless, cases that add clarity to legal 

standards can have very substantial long-term benefits for consumers. 

7 In one recent case, for example, a Federal District Court ordered Boston Scientific Corporation to pay civil 

penalties exceeding $7 million for failing to fulfill the obligations it agreed to as part of an FTC consent 

agreement. United States v. Boston Scientific Corporation, Civ. Action No. 00-12247-PBS, Memorandum and 

Order (D. Mass. March 28, 2003). 

8 Consumer harm from anticompetitive conduct most often takes the form of higher prices. In some cases, 

however, the harm may take some other form, such as curtailment of innovation that would otherwise result in 

new or better products in the future.

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
24 

1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Continue to benefit consumers in markets involving billions of dollars in annual 

sales by challenging anticompetitive mergers and conduct, negotiating consent 

orders, and winning litigated orders. 

• Negotiate merger and nonmerger consent orders and win litigated orders that have 

significant remedial, precedential, and deterrent effects. 

• Continue to implement findings from a series of informal discussions with outside 

parties on improvements to the FTC’s merger investigation process, and the 

negotiation of remedies. 

C Improve the integration of budget and performance by linking goals and objectives 

to results; develop improved processes for use and analysis of management data. 

 2. FY 2004 Implementation Plan

A. All Programs

• Estimate the annual sales in markets in which the FTC took merger or nonmerger 

enforcement action. 

• Enhance the agency’s intellectual property expertise in light of the increasing 

significance of patents and other intellectual property issues in antitrust cases. 

• Support increased antitrust litigation by retaining qualified economists to serve as 

expert witnesses in trials. 

• Further enhance the FTC’s ability to investigate and litigate complex matters 

involving high-tech segments of the economy by increasing technical support from 

independent industry experts. 

• Continue support of the FTC’s ability to litigate complex cases by investing in more 

sophisticated technology to support litigation, including document management 

and courtroom presentations. 

• Participate in planning, developing, improving and conducting agency-wide 

training programs in economic analysis, negotiation, advanced legal writing, and 

litigation skills (including basic and advanced deposition practice, written 

discovery, basic and advanced trial advocacy), as well as mission-specific 

procedures and substantive law. Ensure that lead attorneys and managers collect 

any important lessons learned at the close of each significant negotiation and 

litigation and transmit them to appropriate personnel for incorporation in training 

programs and model pleadings. 

• Review the progress of all ongoing investigations on at least a monthly basis. 

Monitor time and resource expenditures. 

• Monitor the timeliness of administrative adjudication and issue to the public on a 

quarterly basis a status report on the progress of all cases before the 

administrative law judges. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
25 

• Collect data, for management review, regarding the FTC’s efficiency in conducting 

investigations, such as (1) the amount of time required to complete the HSR review 

process, (2) the number of HSR matters requiring issuance of an investigative 

second request, (3) the number of HSR and significant nonmerger investigations 

that result in enforcement action, (4) the number of hours of staff time spent on 

investigations, and (5) other costs associated with investigations. 

• Continue to invest in ongoing research and development in antitrust law and 

policy, including regular assessments of the effectiveness of past FTC enforcement 

actions. Integrate assessments of investigative and enforcement activity with new 

learning on law and economic policy to further the FTC’s objective of (1) bringing 

enforcement actions only when anticompetitive effects from the challenged 

practices or mergers are likely and (2) not overlooking anticompetitive practices or 

mergers. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

B. Merger Enforcement

• During the initial HSR review period, carefully identify those merger transactions 

that are likely to raise potentially significant competitive concerns. Employ HSR 

second requests and other appropriate investigative techniques during the 

extended HSR waiting period to obtain documents, testimony, and other evidence. 

• In non-HSR investigations, employ appropriate investigative tools other than HSR 

second requests, to obtain documents, testimony, and other evidence. 

• Continue to develop and implement changes in the merger review process that 

improve the effectiveness and efficiency of investigations. 

• Monitor compliance with FTC remedial orders in merger cases, including the 

implementation of divestitures, licensing, and other affirmative relief within 

required time periods. Seek civil penalties where appropriate if the respondent fails 

to fulfill its obligations under the order in a timely fashion. 

• Modify orders when warranted by changed conditions of fact or law or when 

otherwise required in the public interest. 

 C. Nonmerger Enforcement

• Employ appropriate investigative techniques, including compulsory process if 

authorized, to obtain relevant information and to assess whether the practice in 

question is harming consumers. 

• Monitor compliance with FTC remedial orders in nonmerger cases. Seek civil 

penalties and other relief where appropriate if the respondent fails to fulfill its 

obligations under the order in a timely fashion. 

• Modify orders when warranted by changed conditions of fact or law or when 

otherwise required in the public interest. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
26 

3. FY 2004 Performance Measures

 In FY 2004, the agency will:

 • For cases in which the Commission finds reason to believe the law has been 

violated, achieve a positive result (including consent orders, litigation victories, 

and, for mergers, transactions abandoned based on FTC antitrust concerns) in at 

least 80% of those cases. 

 • Stay on track toward the FTC’s goal to take action during the five-year Strategic 

Plan period against mergers9 likely to harm competition in markets with a total of 

at least $200 billion in annual sales. To meet this goal, the FTC will need to take 

action each year against mergers likely to harm competition in markets with an 

average total of $40 billion in annual sales. 

 • Stay on track toward the FTC’s goal to take action during the five-year Strategic 

Plan period to prevent or deter anticompetitive conduct in markets with a total of 

at least $100 billion in annual sales. To meet this goal, the FTC will need to take 

action each year against anticompetitive conduct affecting markets with an 

average total of $20 billion in annual sales. 

Because external factors, such as the level of merger activity 

occurring in the market, may cause results to fluctuate from year to 

year, the latter two goals are expressed in terms of an aggregate 

target for the five-year Strategic Plan period, rather than as annual 

targets. 

 

 4. Program Evaluations

• Assess the scope of the FTC’s annual merger enforcement activities, as reflected by 

the volume of commerce on markets in which the agency took merger enforcement 

action. Determine whether the total volume of commerce in such markets is on 

track to reach $200 billion over the five-year Strategic Plan period. Compare the 

likely consumer welfare impact in these markets to the resources spent on the 

mission. 

• Assess the scope of the FTC’s annual nonmerger enforcement activities, as 

reflected by the volume of commerce on markets in which the agency took 

nonmerger enforcement action. Determine whether the total volume of commerce 

in such markets is on track to reach $100 billion over the five-year Strategic Plan 

period. Compare the likely consumer welfare impact in these markets to the 

resources spent on the mission. 

9 The FTC may prevent an anticompetitive result from a proposed merger by (1) conducting successful litigation to 

block the merger, (2) negotiating a settlement to resolve anticompetitive aspects of the merger while allowing the 

underlying transaction to go forward, or (3) identifying antitrust concerns sufficient to cause the parties to 

abandon the transaction without court action. The volume of affected commerce measure does not include 

transactions abandoned by the parties for business considerations unrelated to antitrust. Settlements are 

subject to Commission approval, and require sufficient supporting evidence for the Commission to have “reason 

to believe” that a law violation would occur. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
27 

• Evaluate effectiveness of FTC merger policy by conducting retrospective studies of 

FTC enforcement actions, or decisions not to take enforcement action, to 

determine if actual outcomes were consistent with the goals the Commission 

sought to achieve. 

• Assess the FTC’s efficiency in conducting antitrust investigations, explore ways to 

increase efficient use of investigatory resources, and explore whether efficiency in 

conducting investigations can meaningfully be measured. 

• Explore methods of identifying when the FTC has achieved effective deterrence of 

anticompetitive practices in a market and tracking progress over time. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
28 

Objective 2.3: Prevent consumer injury through education.

FY 2004 Budgeted Resources: 45 FTE $7,398,000

The FTC increases awareness of antitrust law through guidance to the business 

community; outreach efforts to federal, state and local agencies, business groups, and 

consumers; development and publication of antitrust guidelines and policy statements; 

and speeches and publications. In carrying out these functions, the FTC strives to ensure 

that any publicly disseminated data or information subject to the Data Quality Act 

(section 515 of Pub. L. No. 106-554) meets basic quality standards. 

This objective has two different components – (1) educating the legal and business 

communities about applicable legal standards and enforcement policies to facilitate 

compliance with the law, and (2) educating the public in general, as well as policymakers, 

about the benefits of competition. The FTC will separate the Web site hits data in order 

to report under two different performance measures, each hit applicable to one of the two 

components of this objective. 

 1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Continue to educate consumers and businesses about antitrust issues through 

traditional means such as guidelines, advisory opinions, speeches, studies, and 

other publications. 

• Continue to enhance avenues of communication, such as e-mail and the FTC Web 

site. 

• Continue to provide advice about the competitive implications of proposed 

government actions to other governmental bodies upon request. 

• Improve the FTC’s capacity to promote consumer welfare by conducting 

workshops, hearing, and research projects that improve the agency’s 

understanding of significant antitrust issues. 

 2. FY 2004 Implementation Plan

• Evaluate the need for and, as appropriate, develop and issue guidelines to help 

businesses understand and comply with the application of the antitrust laws in 

certain areas, such as horizontal mergers, international operations, intellectual 

property, and health care. 

• Continue to provide Commission and staff advisory opinions on competition 

issues; continue to provide guidance in response to informal telephone requests, 

particularly concerning HSR matters. 

• Prepare advocacy comments to inform other governmental entities about 

competition issues, upon their request. 

• Prepare amicus briefs addressing important competition policy issues under 

consideration in court proceedings. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
29 

• Monitor the content of complaints, press releases, and analyses to aid public 

comment to ensure they are “transparent,” that is, that they explain in sufficient 

detail and with sufficient clarity the evidence and theory of a case, within the 

constraints of confidentiality. Expand the use of press releases and other public 

statements to explain why the Commission elected not to take enforcement action 

in certain matters to further improve the public’s understanding of the FTC’s 

enforcement policies. 

• Make available prepared texts of speeches; as appropriate, develop other materials 

that explain FTC policies and procedures. 

• Continue to have Commissioners and staff speak at and participate in seminars, 

panel discussions, and conferences to explain how the FTC analyzes mergers and 

business practices. 

• Continue to conduct economic research to develop knowledge about how markets 

operate. 

• Continue to support outreach efforts to international bodies to explain U.S. 

antitrust perspectives on competition theories and approaches; continue to aid the 

development of antitrust laws and programs in developing nations by participating 

in technical assistance missions. 

• Make available on the FTC’s Web site the guidelines issued by the FTC, advisory 

opinions, advocacy comments, written releases, texts of speeches, Bureau of 

Economics Reports, and other materials that explain the FTC’s policies and 

procedures. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

 • Continue to hold public hearings and workshops to expand understanding of 

increasingly significant public policy issues, such as factors that affect the price of 

refined petroleum products, and the implications of antitrust and patent law and 

policy for innovation and other aspects of consumer welfare. 

3. FY 2004 Performance Measures

 In FY 2004, the agency will:

• Measure the number of hits on the FTC Web site on antitrust-related pages that 

are relevant to the business and legal communities. 

• Measure the number of hits on the FTC Web site on antitrust-related pages that 

are relevant to policy makers and the public at large. 

 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
30 

 4. Program Evaluations

• Assess whether education and outreach efforts target the right audiences and 

address the issues that have the most impact on the marketplace. 

 

• Evaluate what antitrust content on the FTC Web site generates the largest amount 

of public interest, and why, and use this information in setting future priorities. 

• Seek input from consumer groups, business groups, bar groups and other FTC 

“customers” on the effectiveness of FTC educational efforts. 

• Evaluate the transparency of FTC merger review policy by assessing the extent to 

which significant changes in such policy are communicated to stakeholders. 

• Review trends or patterns in complaints, if any, filed with the agency under the 

Data Quality Act to determine appropriate techniques or strategies for improving 

the quality of publicly disseminated data or information that are subject to the 

Act. 

• Review the results of major competition research initiatives to identify their 

usefulness in guiding FTC decisions and influencing other policymakers’ 

approaches to competition issues.

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2004
31 

Consumer Protection Mission 

Goal 1: To prevent fraud, deception, and unfair business practices in the marketplace.

 

Objective 1.1: Identify fraud, deception, and unfair practices that cause the greatest 

consumer injury.

FY 2005 Budgeted Resources: 112 FTE $22,597,000 

To identify the most prevalent and serious forms of fraud and deception, the FTC relies 

on its consumer complaint database, which is accessible to an increasing number of law 

enforcement partners. The FTC’s database has grown dramatically, with the number of 

complaints and inquiries entered increasing each year. 

The FTC shares complaint data through Consumer Sentinel, a secure Web site that 

provides access to fraud and identity theft complaints to more than 940 law enforcement 

organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia. Consumer Sentinel is a unique 

and effective enforcement tool that permits law enforcers to access data at their desks. 

Although the FTC is not empowered to act on behalf of individual consumers, consumer 

complaint data accessed through Consumer Sentinel enables the FTC and its law 

enforcement partners to coordinate enforcement efforts and to identify and target the 

most serious consumer problems. The FTC also will continue to work with its 

international partners to access and share the information contained in econsumer.gov, 

an FTC-created Web site where consumers can file cross-border complaints. 

The FTC will continue its ongoing efforts to improve and expand the complaint database 

and increase its use by recruiting and training additional law enforcement partners. 

Further, the FTC will continue to build on its capacity to analyze data quickly to respond 

to and identity theft in their incipient stages and help prevent consumer injury. The 

data will be used to provide more information to the public – giving consumers 

information to protect themselves from scams and identity theft, and informing public 

policy discussions about consumer protection issues in the marketplace. The FTC also 

will continue to use other means to collect data on consumers’ experiences, including 

surveys, in order to better target enforcement and education resources. The FTC also will 

continue to enhance its capability to track and analyze privacy-related complaints. 

The FTC will continue to measure performance by reporting the annual number of 

consumer complaints and inquiries entered into the database relating to identity theft. 

This information directly supports criminal prosecutions as the agency’s law enforcement 

partners with criminal jurisdiction search the database to identify malfeasors and victims 

as part of ongoing investigations or prosecutions. 

Finally, the Consumer Protection Mission will continue to review its programs in light of 

the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys of several thousand consumers initiated in 

FY 2002. In FY 2005, the FTC intends to conduct follow-up surveys to track progress in 

these areas and further refine the FTC’s programs. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
32 

Privacy Issues

Privacy issues will remain a priority during FY 2005. The FTC will continue work on the 

rulemakings and studies required under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 

2003 (FACT Act). The FTC also will maintain its scrutiny of the privacy implications of 

new and emerging technologies, and will continue to implement the Telemarketing Sales 

Rule (TSR). The FTC also will devote resources to identity theft, credit reporting, and 

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) matters. The FTC will continue to use 

its data mining and analytical skills to develop custom investigative reports that will 

enable criminal law enforcement agencies to identify and prosecute appropriate identity 

theft cases. The FTC also will continue working with the credit reporting industry to 

ensure the accuracy of consumers’ credit information. Finally, the FTC will continue to 

identify Web Sites that are collecting personal information from children without first 

obtaining parental consent. Through education, voluntary compliance efforts, and law 

enforcement, the FTC will seek to bring these entities into compliance with COPPA. 

Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (Spam)

Thousands of unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam) messages are forwarded to the FTC 

daily by groups and individuals worldwide. Since 1998, the FTC has maintained an 

electronic mailbox ( to which Internet customers are encouraged to forward spam. This 

spam is stored in a searchable database, enabling the FTC staff to track trends and 

identify law enforcement targets when researching potential cases. In FY 2005, resources 

will be used to enhance the database that stores these messages. Expanding the 

database’s capacity and further developing capabilities to search and analyze the data 

will help the FTC use it for case generation, evidentiary support in litigation, trend 

analysis, and legislative recommendations. Resources also will be devoted to the studies 

and enforcement initiatives required under the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited 

Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003 (CAN-SPAM Act). 

1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies 

• Expand the FTC’s comprehensive information system (consumer complaint 

database) to keep pace with the global marketplace. 

• Strengthen capabilities to analyze the increasing volume of complaint data. 

• Continuously upgrade Consumer Sentinel’s services to assist law enforcement 

partners. 

• Ensure the privacy and security of database information. 

• Search for better methods of collecting information to keep abreast of new 

consumer protection problems in traditional markets and electronic markets. 

2. FY 2005 Implementation Plan 

• Continue work on rulemakings and studies as required by the FACT and CANSPAM Acts. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
33 

• Recruit new partners in the United States and abroad to contribute complaint 

data to Consumer Sentinel; add to the group of state, local, federal, and 

international law enforcement agencies accessing information in Consumer 

Sentinel; and train new partners in how to take full advantage of its features. 

• Facilitate the exchange of data with law enforcement officials in other countries; 

and expand the use of econsumer.gov by recruiting additional partners, providing 

more information on the Web site, and increasing complaint collection and 

sharing. 

• Enhance analysis of data to make it more useful to private and public sector 

partners. 

• Enhance the capacity to collect privacy-related complaints in the database. 

• Increase the number and utility of identity theft complaints in the database. 

• Monitor the marketplace to identify allegedly illegal practices that may not be fully 

captured by the database by, for example, using technology to monitor the 

Internet and conducting surveys. 

• Collect data on consumers’ experiences and general inquiries through surveys, 

focus groups, research, readability studies, and other methods of monitoring the 

marketplace in order to better target enforcement and education resources. 

• Identify consumer protection issues emerging as a result of changes in the 

marketplace, and explore them through public workshops, hearings, surveys, etc. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

3. FY 2005 Performance Measures 

 In FY 2005, the agency will: 

• Increase the number of consumer complaints and inquiries in the FTC’s 

comprehensive information system by at least 750,000. 

• As part of the increase in total consumer complaints and inquiries, enter at least 

300,000 consumer complaints and inquiries relating to identity theft. 

The FTC continues to focus law enforcement resources on the most serious 

consumer protection problems identified through its consumer complaint 

database. The data enables the FTC to rapidly detect and respond to fraud, 

deception, and other illegal practices, and to help prevent consumer injury in a 

timely fashion. Furthermore, by broadly sharing its fraud complaints through 

Consumer Sentinel with external partners, the FTC can enhance the effectiveness 

of law enforcement agencies across the United States, Canada, and Australia. The 

FTC also continues to focus on identity theft and uses its resources to collect 

information from identity theft victims and share that information with its law 

enforcement partners. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
34 

4. Program Evaluations 

• Use the results of the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys initiated in 2002, 

and their corresponding follow-up surveys, to measure the FTC’s performance 

against the baseline established after the initial surveys, and further refine the 

FTC’s programs. 

• Assess whether the FTC’s law enforcement and education efforts are addressing 

the leading problem areas identified by the complaint database. 

• Determine the extent to which Consumer Sentinel services are used by law 

enforcement partners. 

• Review current functions, determine what changes or upgrades to the databases 

would be helpful, and implement those changes. 

• Assess privacy and security protections for the database by reviewing complaints, 

if any, and evaluating the policies in place. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
35 

Objective 1.2: Stop fraud, deception, and unfair practices through law enforcement.

FY 2005 Budgeted Resources: 421 FTE $85,745,000 

The FTC operates a wide range of programs to help stop fraud, deception, and unfair 

practices. The FTC will continue to draw from Consumer Sentinel and other sources to 

remain flexible and focus efforts on the newest and most prevalent frauds and scams. 

Privacy

The FTC will continue to highlight the protection of consumers’ private information. The 

FTC’s approach in this arena encompasses both enforcement and education, as the FTC 

focuses on telemarketing, spam, identity theft, and pretexting, as well as enforcement of 

COPPA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and the TSR. Other enforcement efforts in privacy 

will center on cases involving sensitive personal or financial information, and claims 

touting the privacy and security features of products and services. 

E-commerce

As the continued growth of e-commerce may spur the growth of online fraud and 

deception, resources will be used to attack new forms of complex and fast-moving 

high-tech fraud, a continued growth in deceptive online health claims, and online privacy 

practices that violate Section 5 of the FTC Act and COPPA. As needed, the FTC will 

continue to train its law enforcement partners to keep pace with technology-based scams. 

As the Internet grows, so does the FTC’s coordinated law enforcement efforts to meet the 

resulting consumer protection challenges. 

Health Care Products and Services

The deceptive marketing of products that may affect consumer health and safety will 

continue to be an FTC priority. The FTC will focus on dietary supplements and other 

health products promoted on the Internet. Consumer demand for these products is 

increasing, and fraudulent or deceptive claims about the products can pose risks to 

consumers’ well-being. 

 

Globalization

As the marketplace becomes more global, the FTC is involved on two fronts: law 

enforcement and policy development. With respect to law enforcement, cases increasingly 

involve an international component as defendants, their operations, or their assets are 

moved offshore. This makes it difficult to locate and stop scams or to provide redress to 

consumers. The FTC is meeting these challenges by building international partnerships 

to assist in identifying and pursuing these cases. As the FTC continues to develop 

initiatives relating to cross-border fraud, we will work to measure and report our 

performance in this area. On the policy side, the FTC is promoting international 

development of market-oriented consumer protection policies. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
36 

1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Lead a nationwide attack on telemarketing fraud by continuing to coordinate 

federal and state law enforcement sweeps, and by using Consumer Sentinel data to 

identify targets and coordinate with other federal and state agencies to prosecute 

actions against these targets. 

• Target high-tech frauds that have moved to the Internet and exploit other new 

technologies, and increase the capacity to respond rapidly, with enforcement and 

other approaches, to these fast-moving technology-based scams. 

• Develop additional international law enforcement arrangements to tackle crossborder fraud. 

• Ensure that basic consumer protection principles are applied as new markets 

emerge, and develop policies to address new consumer protection issues resulting 

from changes in the marketplace. 

Monitor national advertising in print, television, radio, and online to identify illegal 

practices that may not be captured fully by the FTC’s database. 

• Focus law enforcement on violations that create the greatest risks to consumer 

health, safety, and economic well-being. 

• Encourage self-regulation and private initiatives, where appropriate, in lieu of 

regulation or law enforcement. 

2. FY 2005 Implementation Plan

• Target for federal-state sweeps or other law enforcement initiatives, the most 

significant areas of telemarketing and other types of fraud. 

• Stop the most pernicious Internet-related scams, as they are identified through 

the Consumer Sentinel, the spam database, through Internet surfs, and other 

monitoring. 

• Enforce the provisions of the TSR dealing with pre-acquired account information; 

continue to implement TSR amendments creating a National Do Not Call Registry; 

and increase enforcement of privacy-related amendments to the TSR. 

• Continue enforcement activities against fraudulent and deceptive spam promoting 

chain letters, pyramid schemes, or other kinds of “get-rich-quick” schemes. 

• Recruit new local, state, federal, and international law enforcement partners for 

anti-fraud initiatives and conduct joint enforcement sweeps with law enforcement 

partners. 

• Further initiatives to fight cross-border fraud. 

• Continue to ensure that the FTC’s Internet Lab keeps pace with technology and 

supports rapid response law enforcement capability. 

 

• Target law enforcement efforts at advertising and marketing practices that are 

most injurious to consumers; identify targets based on complaint data and other 

forms of monitoring. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
37 

• Identify industries where a high percentage of companies are not in compliance 

with provisions of consumer protection laws or regulations and bring those 

companies into compliance through law enforcement and business guidance or by 

encouraging self-regulatory programs. 

• Continue enforcement efforts against the abusive practice of pretexting that 

causes consumers concern about the security of their personal financial 

information, and bring privacy and security cases involving sensitive information 

and claims touting the privacy and security features of products and services. 

• Ensure that there is broad compliance with consumer protection laws, rules, and 

guides in the electronic marketplace; target law enforcement to the most serious 

violations. 

• Implement regulations governing franchising, telemarketing sales, and telephone 

billing services. 

• Address cutting-edge consumer protection issues in emerging areas – e-commerce, 

globalization, privacy of personal information, and the marketing of new products 

and services, and newly deregulated services. 

3. FY 2005 Performance Measures

 In FY 2005, the agency will: 

 

• Save consumers approximately $400 million by stopping Internet scams and other 

types of fraud. 

Preventing economic injury to consumers is the ultimate goal of the FTC’s 

anti-fraud efforts. The FTC saves consumers money each time a fraudulent operator is stopped by successful litigation or settlement with the agency. The FTC increases these consumer savings by leading joint law enforcement initiatives with 

federal, state, and international partners. The amount of consumer savings will 

vary each year based on the number and types of fraud stopped. 

Consumer savings are calculated by totaling the estimated annual fraudulent 

sales of defendants in the 12 months prior to the FTC’s filing a complaint. The 

calculation actually may underestimate the agency’s impact because it assumes 

that the fraud would have continued for only one more year and it ignores any 

deterrent effect of FTC enforcement. It provides, however, a uniform method for 

calculating savings and minimizes speculation about the likely duration of the 

fraud. 

• Reduce consumer injury through law enforcement by providing access to essential 

data for law enforcement purposes through the Consumer Sentinel. In FY 2005, 

the goal is that FTC and other law enforcement personnel will conduct 26,000 

data searches of the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel complaints. 

• Of those 26,000 data searches, 1,850 will be conducted by other law enforcement 

personnel reviewing the FTC’s identity theft complaints. 

The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel and identity theft data are a rich source of 

information for FTC staff and its law enforcement partners as they investigate and 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
38 

pursue instances of potential fraud, deception, and unfair practices. The 

expanded access to and use of this information is critical as the FTC works to stop 

these practices. By tracking the number of accesses by both internal and external 

law enforcement personnel, the FTC hopes to demonstrate the value of the 

information contained in these databases. Generally, those personnel who are 

accessing the system are seeking information directly relevant to enforcement 

action – whether they are building a case, investigating a company, identifying 

potential witnesses, or gathering information for a sentencing hearing. In 

particular, the FTC will track the number of accesses that external agencies 

perform of the identity theft data in evaluating the usefulness of its identity theft 

programs to outside law enforcement agencies.

4. Program Evaluations 

• Assess the results of the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys initiated in 

2002 and their follow-up surveys and the overall trends revealed by review of the 

database to measure the FTC’s work against the baseline established after the 

initial surveys. Determine whether the amount of resources dedicated to various 

programs should be altered or the programs’ priorities modified, and create new 

performance measures, if appropriate. 

• Assess the litigation success rate for obtaining preliminary relief in fraud cases. 

• Determine the success of leveraging resources through coordinated joint law 

enforcement initiatives. 

• Evaluate the success of self-regulatory programs. 

• Determine whether there are new industries or areas of marketing that require law 

enforcement or that may be appropriate for self-regulation. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
39 

Objective 1.3: Prevent consumer injury through education. 

FY 2005 Budgeted Resources: 50 FTE $10,446,000 

Consumer and business education is the first line of defense against fraud and deception. 

The FTC’s education efforts target identified areas of fraud and deception, and areas 

where information gaps are greatest because of rapid changes in the marketplace, such 

as new technology-based products and services, privacy of personal information, new 

types of payment systems, and global transactions. The agency creatively uses new 

technologies and private and public partnerships to reach new and under-served 

audiences, particularly those who may not seek information directly from the FTC. 

The FTC will expand its consumer education program to reach these new audiences, 

build new partnerships to help distribute its messages, and continue to create and 

support education Web sites, including the international site, econsumer.gov. In 

addition, nearly every case that the FTC brings possesses a consumer education 

component – targeting the message to the fraud that has occurred. To reach the 

expanding population of Hispanic consumers in the United States, the FTC instituted an 

Hispanic Outreach Program in FY 2002. The agency also cooperates with organizations 

such as the NAACP and the National Council of La Raza to work with minority 

communities, and partners with the Department of Defense on Military Sentinel – a 

resource for members of the military and their families. The FTC will continue to 

publicize its consumer complaint and identity theft Web site addresses and toll-free 

numbers in an ongoing effort to increase public awareness of its programs and inform the 

public of the ways to contact the FTC to obtain information or file a complaint. In 

carrying out these functions, the FTC strives to ensure that any publicly disseminated 

data or information subject to the Data Quality Act (section 515 of Pub. L. No. 106-554) 

meets basic quality standards. 

 1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies 

• Focus consumer and business education efforts on areas where fraud, deception, 

unfair practices, and information gaps cause the greatest injury. 

• Creatively use technology, including interactive media, to extend the reach of 

consumer and business education. 

• Increase public awareness of FTC’s online education materials and the availability 

of its online complaint form and toll-free helplines to provide one-on-one 

information to consumers and increase data collection to support law 

enforcement. 

• Encourage private and public partners to participate in education initiatives. 

 2. FY 2005 Implementation Plan 

• Deliver relevant information to more consumers, industry members, and law 

enforcement partners faster and more efficiently. 

• Focus education on high-profile and emerging issues where consumer information 

gaps are greatest and on the frauds that cause consumers the greatest financial 

injury. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
40 

• Continue a consumer awareness campaign to let consumers know that they 

should report their privacy-related complaints to the FTC and continue an 

outreach program to increase consumer awareness of the privacy information 

required by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. 

• Through greater outreach, lead more consumers to the FTC’s Web site (ftc.gov) and 

the “one-stop” government Web site for consumer information (consumer.gov). 

• Expand coverage of FTC messages, including the online information and toll-free 

helplines, through marketing, new products, and technology. 

• Continue efforts to identify and reach under-served audiences, businesses, and 

law enforcement offices. 

 3. FY 2005 Performance Measures 

 

 In FY 2005, the agency will:

• Provide education messages online and in print to 20 million recipients. 

 

Education programs benefit consumers by alerting them to their rights under 

various consumer protection laws and providing practical tips on how to recognize 

and avoid scams and rip-offs. To reach the broadest possible audience, the FTC 

maximizes its use of the national media, the agency’s ftc.gov Web site, and the 

interagency firstgov.gov Web site. The FTC’s messages also reach the public 

through the Consumer Response Center and hundreds of partners who distribute 

FTC materials, link to the FTC Web site, or post FTC messages on their Web sites. 

• As part of the 20 million education messages, provide education messages related 

to identity theft online or in print to 3 million recipients. 

The FTC has coordinated with other government agencies and organizations to 

develop and disseminate comprehensive consumer education materials for victims 

of identity theft and those concerned with preventing this crime. The FTC’s most 

popular publication, “Identity Theft: When Bad Things Happen to Your Good 

Name,” is available in print and online. The FTC also distributes CDs containing 

this publication, thus enabling other federal agencies to print and distribute it. 

Thus, the distribution numbers reported in this measure may be lower than actual 

numbers. 

• Continue to build the agency’s Hispanic Outreach Program and, as part of the 20 

million education messages, provide Spanish-language education publications to 

more than 500,000 recipients. 

The FTC first began this program in January 2002 to reach the growing Hispanic 

population in the United States. As of December 2003, the FTC had created a 

dedicated page of the FTC Web site, Proteccion para el Consumidor, to mirror the 

English-language page, and translated more than 65 consumer publications into 

Spanish. It also translated the FTC Consumer Complaint Form and provided a 

translation of the “bestseller” on identity theft – Robo de Identidad: Algo malo 

puede pasarle a su buen nombre. The universal identity theft affidavit has been 

translated into Spanish and also is available on the FTC Web site. 

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
41 

 4. Program Evaluations 

• Determine the number of publications distributed or accessed online to evaluate 

outreach efforts and identify topics of particular consumer interest. 

• Assess whether the appropriate mix of media is being used to communicate 

consumer education messages and whether the FTC is making the best use of the 

available media and technology. 

• Assess the number and range of public and private organizations that partner with 

FTC to do outreach; the more public and private partners the FTC has, and the 

larger those partners are, the greater its potential to reach different types of 

audiences, both business and consumer. 

• Determine whether the FTC needs to reach new audiences, in light of any changes 

in demographics, advertising, and marketing practices, and as a result of any 

further information from the consumer fraud and identity theft surveys. 

• Review the focus of FTC education efforts and adjust them based on changing 

consumer and business needs. 

• Continue to assess the consumer education needs of the Spanish-speaking 

population. Census data shows that the United States has a large and growing 

Spanish-speaking population. Because these consumers may not speak English 

or are non-native speakers of the language, they may be less aware of the nuances 

and the complexities of disclosures, advertisements, or other aspects of consumer 

transactions. The FTC will assess the vulnerabilities of this group and then craft 

a strategy to meet their needs. 

• Review trends or patterns in complaints, if any, filed under the Data Quality Act to 

determine appropriate techniques or strategies for improving the quality of 

publicly disseminated data or information that are subject to the Act.

Performance Plan 

Consumer Protection Mission Fiscal Year 2005
42 
43 

Maintaining Competition Mission 

Goal 2: To prevent anticompetitive mergers and other anticompetitive business 

practices in the marketplace. 

Objective 2.1: Identify anticompetitive mergers and practices that cause the greatest consumer injury.

 

FY 2005 Budgeted Resources: 54 FTE $9,531,000 

The FTC seeks to identify mergers and business practices that are anticompetitive and to 

focus its investigative resources on those activities most likely to harm consumers 

significantly. The goal is to avoid overlooking antitrust problems by focusing too narrowly, 

but also to avoid spending resources unproductively by investing in too many 

investigations that do not yield evidence of a problem. 

Most mergers are either competitively neutral or beneficial to consumers, but those few 

that are anticompetitive can impose significant costs on consumers. Mergers vary 

tremendously in their complexity and potential anticompetitive effect. 

Identifying anticompetitive mergers is a top priority in the Maintaining Competition 

Mission. The premerger notification requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act 

provide the FTC with an effective starting point for identifying anticompetitive mergers 

before they are consummated. Amendments to the HSR Act, effective in 2001, changed 

the criteria governing which mergers must be reported under the Act, but the 

amendments did not change the standard of legality for mergers. Consequently, the FTC 

now devotes more attention to the identification of unreported, usually consummated, 

mergers that could harm consumers. Despite the revised HSR filing thresholds and a 

decline in merger activity in 2001-2003 from the historic peak levels reached during the 

late 1990's and 2000, the FTC still faces a demanding merger review workload. In 

addition, based on normal cycles in the economy and long-term trends in merger activity, 

the 2001-2003 lull will likely recede by 2005. 

The recent decline in merger activity has enabled the FTC to renew its focus on the nonmerger portion of its Maintaining Competition Mission. Beginning in 2001, the FTC 

increased significantly its efforts to identify appropriate targets for nonmerger 

investigations, making the balance between merger and nonmerger activities more 

consistent with historic patterns. 

On the nonmerger side, no statutory program comparable to HSR exists to help antitrust 

enforcers identify anticompetitive business practices. The FTC must employ a variety of 

methods to identify potentially anticompetitive practices (for example, consumer and 

competitor complaints, referrals from other government agencies, and monitoring the 

trade press). 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
44 

1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Administer the HSR premerger notification program and track and maintain the 

timeliness of merger review under the program. 

• Improve use of the initial 30-day period after HSR filings (or 15 days for a cash 

tender offer or a bankruptcy sale) to determine whether a merger is likely to harm 

competition, including reducing delays in interagency clearance (i.e., the process 

used by the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division to determine 

which of the two will investigate a particular transaction) and timely review of 

filings to avoid unnecessary extended investigations. 

• Identify emerging trends and focus on potentially anticompetitive business 

practices or other issues that need to be addressed because of changes in the 

economy, technology, and the marketplace through hearings, task forces, Bureau 

of Economics studies, and other means. 

• Continue to examine the scope of exemptions to the antitrust laws to identify 

possible categories of harmful conduct that, while ostensibly protected from 

antitrust challenge, are in fact not exempt from the antitrust laws. 

• Refine the investigative and decisional tools used in both merger and nonmerger 

investigations through continuous learning. 

• Continue to integrate e-government initiatives, such as electronic premerger filing, 

into the expanse of mission activities. 

 2. FY 2005 Implementation Plan

A. All Programs

• Ensure timeliness of review. Monitor the time and resources needed to conduct 

preliminary investigations. Review the progress of all ongoing investigations on at 

least a monthly basis. For mergers filed under the HSR program, maintain 

statistics on the average time needed to “clear” transactions that do not require 

further review. Review and analyze these statistics on a regular basis. 

• Articulate FTC policies and procedures through speeches, electronic and print 

media, and other means to inform potentially aggrieved parties that they may 

lodge complaints with the FTC, as well as to help parties stay in compliance with 

the antitrust laws. 

• Conduct economic studies of the effects of business actions on competition and 

consumer welfare. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
45 

B. Identifying Anticompetitive Mergers

• In the initial review of each HSR filing, determine compliance with reporting 

requirements; promptly assess whether further review is needed to determine if 

the transaction may be anticompetitive. 

• For transactions requiring further review, use the initial 30-day waiting period 

after filing (15 days in certain instances), to investigate and reach a sound and 

well-informed determination of whether the proposed merger raises sufficiently 

serious threat of harm to consumers to expand the investigation by issuing 

requests for additional information (“second requests”) and seeking Commission 

approval for use of compulsory process authority. 

• Continue to refine and improve procedures used in HSR merger investigations to 

avoid undue burden on merging parties while still obtaining the necessary 

information to fulfill the agency’s competition mission. 

• To promote voluntary compliance with HSR premerger notification requirements, 

vigorously pursue violations. Monitor compliance of merging entities and fully 

investigate apparent violations. 

• In light of the statutory increase in HSR filing thresholds effective in FY 2001, 

continue increased efforts to identify mergers that are not subject to HSR 

requirements but that are potentially anticompetitive, using techniques such as (1) 

monitoring the trade press and Internet resources, (2) responding to and following 

up on case leads from Congressional offices, other Executive Branch agencies, and 

state and local government, and (3) encouraging consumers, businesses, and the 

bar to notify the FTC of possibly anticompetitive mergers. 

C. Identifying Anticompetitive Conduct

• Identify potentially anticompetitive nonmerger business practices through the 

same means used to identify potentially anticompetitive mergers not subject to 

HSR, as well as pursuing investigative leads developed by staff in other 

investigations, and using task forces to identify harmful practices in selected 

areas. 

• Devote additional scrutiny to selected issues or industry practices raising 

significant consumer concerns or involving potential for significant consumer 

injury. Continue in-depth studies of important competition issues. 

 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
46 

 3. FY 2005 Performance Measures

 In FY 2005, the agency will:

• Continue effective screening of HSR premerger notification filings to identify those 

that most likely present antitrust concerns, so that between 60% and 80% of HSR 

requests for additional information result in enforcement action.1 In conjunction 

with this measure, and to facilitate evaluation of results, the FTC will also report 

the number of second requests issued each year and the number of merger 

enforcement actions.2

• Effectively target nonmerger investigative resources, so that between 60% and 80% 

of nonmerger investigations in which the Commission issues a resolution 

authorizing the use of compulsory process result in enforcement action.3 In 

conjunction with this measure, and to facilitate evaluation of results, the FTC will 

also report the number of nonmerger investigations opened and the number in 

which the Commission authorizes the use of compulsory process each year. 

Both measures indicate the FTC’s success in identifying matters for 

investigation that are likely sources of harm to consumers. A 

percentage below 60% may suggest that the FTC is targeting its 

resources ineffectively by investigating too many competitively 

benign mergers or practices, while a percentage higher than 80% 

may suggest that the agency is focusing too narrowly and thus 

allowing problematic merger transactions to go forward without 

sufficient review or limiting its focus to only the most obviously 

anticompetitive business practices. 

 4. Program Evaluations

• Review and refine data-monitoring systems relevant to (1) the timeliness of the 

HSR review process and (2) the degree to which appropriate resources are being 

devoted to initial review of each matter prior to issuance of an investigative second 

request. 

• Review significant deviations from the statistical benchmarks for timely and 

efficient review of merger transactions and take corrective action where necessary. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005

1 The FTC will compute this measure by dividing the number of second request investigations that result in 

enforcement action during the relevant fiscal year (without regard to when the investigation commenced), by the 

total number of second request investigations that concluded during the year with or without enforcement action 

(again, without regard to when the investigation commenced). “Enforcement action” includes Commission 

authorization of a complaint for preliminary injunction in federal court, issuance of an administrative complaint, 

a consent agreement, or the parties’ abandonment of a proposed transaction based on FTC antitrust concerns. 

2 The FTC also investigates mergers that are not subject to HSR reporting requirements, but there is no 

benchmark directly comparable to the issuance of a second request in those matters, and the overall number of 

non-HSR merger investigations is too small to permit a meaningful statistical measure. 

3 The issuance of a compulsory process resolution indicates that the Commission has found the matter to be 

serious enough to warrant the use of its compulsory process authority and also generally correlates with those 

investigations to which the agency devotes meaningful resources. 
47 

• Conduct periodic meetings between the Director of the Bureau of Competition and 

heads of litigation divisions to ensure that substantive standards are applied 

consistently and uniformly. 

• Assess the significance (quantitatively in terms of the aggregate size of markets 

investigated and potential dollar savings to consumers, and qualitatively in 

deterrence value and precedential significance) of the matters investigated each 

year. 

• Continue to seek improvements in the merger review process to improve further 

the effectiveness and efficiency of investigations; continue to collect public input to 

assist it in enhancing and refining the process. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
48 

Objective 2.2: Stop anticompetitive mergers and practices through law enforcement.

FY 2005 Budgeted Resources: 412 FTE $69,313,000 

The FTC seeks to stop anticompetitive mergers and practices through law enforcement 

activities. Maintaining competitive markets through effective antitrust law enforcement is 

integral to a healthy U.S. economy. The FTC’s antitrust enforcement thus serves a vital 

role in protecting consumers’ interests in lower prices, better quality, and greater 

innovation. 

The FTC seeks to maintain an appropriate balance between its merger and nonmerger 

enforcement, although the resources available for nonmerger work fluctuate depending 

on the merger workload facing the FTC at any given time. Because of the short statutory 

time frame set out for HSR investigations, the FTC must reallocate resources from 

nonmerger enforcement to merger enforcement during periods of peak merger activity to 

meet the statutory deadlines. Over the decade ending in FY 2000, an unprecedented level 

of merger activity required the shifting of resources from nonmerger activities to the 

merger arena. Merger activity has declined to a more manageable level since 2000, 

permitting renewed emphasis on the nonmerger area, but this could change by 2005 if 

economic conditions and other factors dictate an increase in merger activity. 

Merger enforcement responsibilities continue to place significant demands on the FTC’s 

resources for the following reasons: (1) long-term trends suggest a continued upward 

trajectory in merger activity – particularly in the size, scope, and complexity of individual 

merger transactions; (2) the number of mergers raising antitrust concerns, not the overall 

number of filings, primarily drives the FTC’s merger workload; and (3) challenging a 

consummated merger typically entails resource-intensive litigation. 

Despite these challenges, the end of the decade-long merger wave in 2000 allowed the 

FTC to restore resources to its nonmerger priorities. Investigations begun in FY 2001 and 

2002 are resulting in more nonmerger enforcement actions in FY 2003. Among the areas 

that the FTC is currently addressing are the scope of antitrust exemption doctrines such 

as Noerr-Pennington and state action, restraints on competition among professionals, and 

anticompetitive abuses of the standards-setting process. 

Two factors place increasing demands on the FTC’s antitrust enforcement mission in both 

the merger and nonmerger segments. FTC antitrust investigations increasingly involve 

high-technology sectors of the economy, such as those that produce computer hardware 

and pharmaceutical products. Moreover, issues in antitrust matters increasingly 

intersect with intellectual property concerns, raising difficult questions about how to 

reconcile these two different bodies of law with similar goals. As these trends continue, 

the FTC requires more and more specialized technical and legal knowledge and expertise. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
49 

4 Although the FTC receives notification of fewer proposed mergers in advance because of modifications in the 

HSR reporting thresholds, the agency continues to monitor unreported mergers. Unreported mergers are much 

more likely to have been consummated by the time the FTC can complete an investigation, so any such merger 

that threatens competition likely will require litigation, rather than a pre-consummation consent agreement, to 

obtain relief. 

5 Cases with broad financial stakes can bring tremendous benefits to consumers, but the financial 

considerations also significantly increase the respondents’ incentives to contest the issues rather than settle. 

For example, in Union Oil Company of California, the FTC is litigating charges that the company illegally 

obtained patents on technology used to produce the low-emissions gasoline required in California to protect air 

quality. If the company is permitted to enforce these patents, its competitors would have to pay hundreds of 

millions of dollars annually in royalties for the technology, and about 90 percent of that cost likely would be 

passed on to consumers in the form of higher gasoline prices. 

6 Because the FTC has a unique responsibility to help shape antitrust law and policy, as well as enforce it, its 

cases sometimes focus on areas in which legal standards are not fully developed. Because liability may not be 

clear cut in these instances, costly litigation is more likely. Nevertheless, cases that add clarity to legal 

standards can have very substantial long-term benefits for consumers. 

7 In one recent case, for example, a Federal District Court ordered Boston Scientific Corporation to pay civil 

penalties exceeding $7 million for failing to fulfill the obligations it agreed to as part of an FTC consent 

agreement. United States v. Boston Scientific Corporation, Civ. Action No. 00-12247-PBS, Memorandum and 

Order (D. Mass. March 28, 2003). 

8 Consumer harm from anticompetitive conduct most often takes the form of higher prices. In some cases, 

however, the harm may take some other form, such as curtailment of innovation that would otherwise result in 

new or better products in the future.

More FTC antitrust cases are requiring costly litigation to resolve. Changes in the 

thresholds for HSR premerger notification requirements4, the FTC’s pursuit of cases 

involving very large potential financial impact5, and the agency’s increased focus on 

cutting-edge legal issues6 all are contributing to a higher litigation workload. Effectively 

staffing and managing a substantially higher number of litigation matters presents a 

significant challenge for the future. 

The FTC must also maintain an effective compliance program so that consumers receive 

the benefits of competition obtained through the FTC’s investigation and litigation efforts. 

This objective focuses on devising and drafting effective compliance orders in individual 

matters, a highly fact-specific process. In addition, the agency conducts general and 

historical analyses on the effectiveness of various kinds of merger and nonmerger 

remedies, such as divestiture orders. The FTC also litigates, when necessary, to vindicate 

its authority to order relief to protect competition.7 As the number and complexity of 

competition cases rise, so do the resource needs of the compliance program associated 

with those cases. 

Merger enforcement saves consumers money by preventing price increases that likely 

would have occurred due to the loss of competition if the merger had gone forward 

unchallenged.8 Nonmerger enforcement similarly benefits consumers by stopping anticompetitive activity that raises prices or otherwise restricts competition. While the FTC’s 

actions undeniably bring significant benefits to consumers, the precise calculation of the 

savings of a specific action can be subject to many variables. Thus, while consumers 

benefit from FTC antitrust enforcement, it is very difficult to quantify that benefit. 

Consequently, the FTC will measure its performance in stopping anticompetitive mergers 

and practices by calculating the amount of commerce involved in markets in which the 

agency takes enforcement action. This approach should provide a useful means of 

evaluating the breadth and magnitude of the FTC’s enforcement efforts, while avoiding 

unverifiable estimates of the resulting benefit to consumers. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
50 

 1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Continue to benefit consumers in markets involving billions of dollars in annual 

sales by challenging anticompetitive mergers and conduct, negotiating consent 

orders, and winning litigated orders. 

• Negotiate merger and nonmerger consent orders and win litigated orders that have 

significant remedial, precedential, and deterrent effects. 

• Continue to implement findings from a series of informal discussions with outside 

parties on improvements to the FTC’s merger investigation process, and the 

negotiation of remedies. 

C Improve the integration of budget and performance by linking goals and objectives 

to results; develop improved processes for use and analysis of management data. 

 2. FY 2005 Implementation Plan

A. All Programs

• Estimate the annual sales in markets in which the FTC took merger or nonmerger 

enforcement action. 

• Enhance the agency’s intellectual property expertise in light of the increasing 

significance of patents and other intellectual property issues in antitrust cases. 

• Support increased antitrust litigation through a special litigation unit within the 

Bureau of Competition, staffed by attorneys with substantial litigation experience 

and expertise, to guide and advise staff conducting administrative or federal court 

litigation. 

• Support antitrust litigation by retaining qualified economists to serve as expert 

witnesses in trials. 

• Further enhance the FTC’s ability to investigate and litigate complex matters 

involving high-tech segments of the economy by increasing technical support from 

independent industry experts. 

• Continue support of the FTC’s ability to litigate complex cases by investing in more 

sophisticated technology to support litigation, including document management 

and courtroom presentations. 

• Participate in planning, developing, improving and conducting agency-wide 

training programs in economic analysis, negotiation, advanced legal writing, and 

litigation skills (including basic and advanced deposition practice, written 

discovery, basic and advanced trial advocacy), as well as mission-specific 

procedures and substantive law. Ensure that lead attorneys and managers collect 

any important lessons learned at the close of each significant negotiation and 

litigation and transmit them to appropriate personnel for incorporation in training 

programs and model pleadings. 

• Review the progress of all ongoing investigations on at least a monthly basis. 

Monitor time and resource expenditures. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
51 

• Monitor the timeliness of administrative adjudication and issue to the public on a 

quarterly basis a status report on the progress of all cases before the 

administrative law judges. 

• Collect data, for management review, regarding the FTC’s efficiency in conducting 

investigations, such as (1) the amount of time required to complete the HSR review 

process, (2) the number of HSR matters requiring issuance of an investigative 

second request, (3) the number of HSR and significant nonmerger investigations 

that result in enforcement action, (4) the number of hours of staff time spent on 

investigations, and (5) other costs associated with investigations. 

 

• Continue to invest in ongoing research and development in antitrust law and 

policy, including regular assessments of the effectiveness of past FTC enforcement 

actions. Integrate assessments of investigative and enforcement activity with new 

learning on law and economic policy to further the FTC’s objective of (1) bringing 

enforcement actions only when anticompetitive effects from the challenged 

practices or mergers are likely and (2) not overlooking anticompetitive practices or 

mergers. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

B. Merger Enforcement

• During the initial HSR review period, carefully identify those merger transactions 

that are likely to raise potentially significant competitive concerns. Employ HSR 

second requests and other appropriate investigative techniques during the 

extended HSR waiting period to obtain documents, testimony, and other evidence. 

• In non-HSR investigations, employ appropriate investigative tools other than HSR 

second requests, to obtain documents, testimony, and other evidence. 

• Continue to develop and implement changes in the merger review process that 

improve the effectiveness and efficiency of investigations. 

• Monitor compliance with FTC remedial orders in merger cases, including the 

implementation of divestitures, licensing, and other affirmative relief within 

required time periods. Seek civil penalties where appropriate if the respondent fails 

to fulfill its obligations under the order in a timely fashion. 

• Modify orders when warranted by changed conditions of fact or law or when 

otherwise required in the public interest. 

 C. Nonmerger Enforcement

• Employ appropriate investigative techniques, including compulsory process if 

authorized, to obtain relevant information and to assess whether the practice in 

question is harming consumers. 

• Monitor compliance with FTC remedial orders in nonmerger cases. Seek civil 

penalties and other relief where appropriate if the respondent fails to fulfill its 

obligations under the order in a timely fashion. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
52 

9 The FTC may prevent an anticompetitive result from a proposed merger by (1) conducting successful litigation to 

block the merger, (2) negotiating a settlement to resolve anticompetitive aspects of the merger while allowing the 

underlying transaction to go forward, or (3) identifying antitrust concerns sufficient to cause the parties to 

abandon the transaction without court action. The volume of affected commerce measure does not include 

transactions abandoned by the parties for business considerations unrelated to antitrust. Settlements are 

subject to Commission approval, and require sufficient supporting evidence for the Commission to have “reason 

to believe” that a law violation would occur. 

• Modify orders when warranted by changed conditions of fact or law or when 

otherwise required in the public interest. 

 3. FY 2005 Performance Measures

 In FY 2005, the agency will:

 • For cases in which the Commission finds reason to believe the law has been 

violated, achieve a positive result (including consent orders, litigation victories, 

and, for mergers, transactions abandoned based on FTC antitrust concerns) in at 

least 80% of those cases. 

 • Continue on track toward the FTC’s goal to take action during the five-year 

Strategic Plan period against mergers9 likely to harm competition in markets with 

a total of at least $200 billion in annual sales. To meet this goal, the FTC will need 

to take action each year against mergers likely to harm competition in markets 

with an average total of $40 billion in annual sales. 

 • Continue on track toward the FTC’s goal to take action during the five-year 

Strategic Plan period to prevent or deter anticompetitive conduct in markets with a 

total of at least $100 billion in annual sales. To meet this goal, the FTC will need 

to take action each year against anticompetitive conduct affecting markets with an 

average total of $20 billion in annual sales. 

Because external factors, such as the level of merger activity 

occurring in the market, may cause results to fluctuate from year to 

year, the latter two goals are expressed in terms of an aggregate 

target for the five-year Strategic Plan period, rather than as annual 

targets. 

 4. Program Evaluations

• Assess the scope of the FTC’s annual merger enforcement activities, as reflected by 

the volume of commerce on markets in which the agency took merger enforcement 

action. Determine whether the total volume of commerce in such markets is on 

track to reach $200 billion over the five-year Strategic Plan period. Compare the 

likely consumer welfare impact in these markets to the resources spent on the 

mission. 

• Assess the scope of the FTC’s annual nonmerger enforcement activities, as 

reflected by the volume of commerce on markets in which the agency took 

nonmerger enforcement action. Determine whether the total volume of commerce 

in such markets is on track to reach $100 billion over the five-year Strategic Plan 

period. Compare the likely consumer welfare impact in these markets to the 

resources spent on the mission. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
53 

• Evaluate effectiveness of FTC merger policy by conducting retrospective studies of 

FTC enforcement actions, or decisions not to take enforcement action, to 

determine if actual outcomes were consistent with the goals the Commission 

sought to achieve. 

• Assess the FTC’s efficiency in conducting antitrust investigations, explore ways to 

increase efficient use of investigatory resources, and explore whether efficiency in 

conducting investigations can meaningfully be measured. 

• Explore methods of identifying when the FTC has achieved effective deterrence of 

anticompetitive practices in a market and tracking progress over time. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
54 

Objective 2.3: Prevent consumer injury through education.

FY 2005 Budgeted Resources: 45 FTE $7,798,000

The FTC increases awareness of antitrust law through guidance to the business 

community; outreach efforts to federal, state and local agencies, business groups, and 

consumers; development and publication of antitrust guidelines and policy statements; 

and speeches and publications. In carrying out these functions, the FTC strives to ensure 

that any publicly disseminated data or information subject to the Data Quality Act 

(section 515 of Pub. L. No. 106-554) meets basic quality standards. 

This objective has two different components – (1) educating the legal and business 

communities about applicable legal standards and enforcement policies to facilitate 

compliance with the law, and (2) educating the public in general, as well as policymakers, 

about the benefits of competition. The FTC will separate the Web site hits data in order 

to report under two different performance measures, each hit applicable to one of the two 

components of this objective. 

 1. GPRA Five-Year Strategies

• Continue to educate consumers and businesses about antitrust issues through 

traditional means such as guidelines, advisory opinions, speeches, studies, and 

other publications. 

• Continue to enhance avenues of communication, such as e-mail and the FTC Web 

site. 

• Continue to provide advice about the competitive implications of proposed 

government actions to other governmental bodies upon request. 

• Improve the FTC’s capacity to promote consumer welfare by conducting 

workshops, hearing, and research projects that improve the agency’s 

understanding of significant antitrust issues. 

 2. FY 2005 Implementation Plan

• Evaluate the need for and, as appropriate, develop and issue guidelines to help 

businesses understand and comply with the application of the antitrust laws in 

certain areas, such as horizontal mergers, international operations, intellectual 

property, and health care. 

• Continue to provide Commission and staff advisory opinions on competition 

issues; continue to provide guidance in response to informal telephone requests, 

particularly concerning HSR matters. 

• Prepare advocacy comments to inform other governmental entities about 

competition issues, upon their request. 

• Prepare amicus briefs addressing important competition policy issues under 

consideration in court proceedings. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
55 

• Monitor the content of complaints, press releases, and analyses to aid public 

comment to ensure they are “transparent,” that is, that they explain in sufficient 

detail and with sufficient clarity the evidence and theory of a case, within the 

constraints of confidentiality. Expand the use of press releases and other public 

statements to explain why the Commission elected not to take enforcement action 

in certain matters to further improve the public’s understanding of the FTC’s 

enforcement policies. 

• Make available prepared texts of speeches; as appropriate, develop other materials 

that explain FTC policies and procedures. 

• Continue to have Commissioners and staff speak at and participate in seminars, 

panel discussions, and conferences to explain how the FTC analyzes mergers and 

business practices. 

• Continue to conduct economic research to develop knowledge about how markets 

operate. 

• Continue to support outreach efforts to international bodies to explain U.S. 

antitrust perspectives on competition theories and approaches; continue to aid the 

development of antitrust laws and programs in developing nations by participating 

in technical assistance missions. 

• Make available on the FTC’s Web site the guidelines issued by the FTC, advisory 

opinions, advocacy comments, written releases, texts of speeches, Bureau of 

Economics Reports, and other materials that explain the FTC’s policies and 

procedures. 

• Follow a basic standard of data quality, including objectivity, utility, and integrity 

for the information used in measuring performance. 

• Continue to hold public hearings and workshops to expand understanding of 

increasingly significant public policy issues, such as factors that affect the price of 

refined petroleum products, and the implications of antitrust and patent law and 

policy for innovation and other aspects of consumer welfare. 

3. FY 2005 Performance Measures

 In FY 2005, the agency will:

• Measure the number of hits on the FTC Web site on antitrust-related pages that 

are relevant to the business and legal communities. 

• Measure the number of hits on the FTC Web site on antitrust-related pages that 

are relevant to policy makers and the public at large. 

 4. Program Evaluations

• Assess whether education and outreach efforts target the right audiences and 

address the issues that have the most impact on the marketplace. 

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
56 

• Evaluate what antitrust content on the FTC Web site generates the largest amount 

of public interest, and why, and use this information in setting future priorities. 

• Seek input from consumer groups, business groups, bar groups and other FTC 

“customers” on the effectiveness of FTC educational efforts. 

• Evaluate the transparency of FTC merger review policy by assessing the extent to 

which significant changes in such policy are communicated to stakeholders. 

• Review trends or patterns in complaints, if any, filed with the agency under the 

Data Quality Act to determine appropriate techniques or strategies for improving 

the quality of publicly disseminated data or information that are subject to the 

Act. 

• Review the results of major competition research initiatives to identify their 

usefulness in guiding FTC decisions and influencing other policymakers’ 

approaches to competition issues.

Performance Plan 

Maintaining Competition Mission Fiscal Year 2005
57 

President’s Management Agenda 

In 2001, the Administration announced a strategy for improving the management of the 

federal government called the President’s Management Agenda (PMA). It focuses on five 

areas of management weakness across the government for which improvements and the 

most progress can be made. The FTC is committed to this effort and is managing its 

resources effectively and achieving immediate, concrete, and measurable results in each 

of the five initiative areas of the PMA: human capital; competitive sourcing; e-government; 

financial management; and integration of budget and performance. 

Demands on the agency have grown dramatically over the past decade as commerce has 

become increasingly electronic and the economy has become high-tech and global. 

During this period, the agency has found new ways to meet these growing demands and 

reach out to more consumers and businesses without an appreciable addition of 

personnel. To address these issues, the FTC has been engaged in long-term, concerted 

efforts to work smarter and more effectively. The FTC continues to work to improve management and program performance. The agency has a solid record of assessment, 

realignment, innovation, and improvement. There are several efforts underway to 

address, among other areas, recruitment and training, performance and costs, and 

reporting and systems. 

Initiative: Human Capital Management

• Knowledge Management The FTC is engaged in a systematic program to improve 

staff training of all types – professional, managerial, technical, and administrative. 

Training is a key component to working smarter and improving productivity. It is 

also critical in managing FTC attrition, especially in the ranks of lawyers and 

economists, where career training and professional development are valued highly. 

New and innovative training programs have resulted in increased interest and 

participation from all segments of the workforce. For the past four years, the 

FTC’s training and development program has been guided by its Training Council, 

composed of representatives throughout the agency. In FY 2003, the FTC 

implemented its first e-learning program. E-learning offers an array of selfdirected training opportunities in all mission-critical areas as well as personal and 

professional. A sampling of the areas covered by e-learning includes management 

effectiveness, leadership, team building, finance, accounting, communications, 

project management, strategic planning, administrative support, and a wide range 

of information technology classes. 

• Leadership As a key part of its management improvement efforts, the FTC 

implemented several training programs. The Manager Series is the cornerstone of 

the agency’s management development and is mandatory for all supervisors and 

managers. The program focuses on employee relations, performance 

management, and labor relations. The Leadership Series introduces participants 

to contemporary issues and concepts for today’s manager. The Best Practices in 

Management and Leadership Series provides participants with current theory and 

best practice approaches to important areas of human resource management. In 

FY 2003, the FTC offered Performance Management: Ideas into Action, the final 

scheduled course on the agency's revised performance management program. 

This program emphasizes a comprehensive approach to performance 

management, from establishing performance plans through preparing performance 

President’s Management Agenda

 Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request 
58 

evaluations. The course is based on a five-step performance management model 

and matches each step with the FTC's performance policy. Over 100 supervisors 

and managers attended the training course. 

• Performance Management During the past year, the FTC completed a study of 

its performance management system. The study involved four steps: collecting 

information from inside and outside the FTC; identifying issues and possible 

solutions; obtaining input from FTC managers and employees on the identified 

solutions; and preparing a report with findings and recommendations. The final 

report recommended that the current system be retained with minor 

improvements. The study also served to focus managers on good performance 

management. As a result of manager input, guidelines were issued in FY 2003 to 

clarify and strengthen performance elements and standards for positions with the 

largest population of employees. Management-wide training on the updated 

performance management policy is continuing (see Leadership section above). 

• Strategic Alignment The FTC continues to examine a range of management and 

support positions to determine which ones can be eliminated to put more staff at 

the front lines of the agency’s missions. As part of this effort, in the late 1990s, 

the agency reduced by 24 percent the Office of the Executive Director, the agency’s 

management and administrative organization. The FTC moved some 

administrative positions to other organizations where the work could be performed 

more efficiently, but eliminated most of these positions to free positions for 

attorneys, investigators, and other positions at the front lines of the agency’s 

consumer protection and competition missions. These examinations are ongoing. 

• Core Competencies In the rapidly growing electronic and global marketplace, the 

FTC needs professionals with specialized skills to investigate complex economic 

issues and apply sophisticated legal precedents to antitrust and consumer 

protection litigation. Attorneys account for approximately 53 percent of the FTC’s 

permanent workforce, and Ph.D. economists account for an additional 8 percent. 

These professionals are supported by staff with technical skills and expertise, 

such as paralegals, data analysts, and computer specialists, and a core 

complement of staff with management and operational skills. The FTC is working 

to recruit and retain highly qualified individuals by offering hiring and relocation 

bonuses, moving expenses, high starting salaries, large cash awards, as well as 

non-monetary benefits such as time-off, training and development opportunities, 

and assignments to high profile cases. We are identifying core competencies to 

recruit applicants with specific knowledge and skills needed to support our mission, particularly in the legal area. 

• Continuing Assessment of Support Workforce Across the FTC, a number of 

support staff will retire over the next five years, and the development of new 

technology will allow for accomplishment of more administrative tasks 

electronically. The agency will transfer these support positions to the front lines of 

the missions, either in law enforcement or consumer education. The FTC is 

focusing on training and employee development for staff who are not yet ready to 

retire, but who are performing tasks that could be automated. We are also 

analyzing statistics for potential retirements among the supervisory and 

management ranks and developing strategies for knowledge management and 

succession. 

 Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request 

President’s Management Agenda
59 

• Workforce Alignment The FTC launched a study of legal support positions at the 

FTC. The study focuses on paralegals, federal trade investigators, merger 

analysts, and similar positions that provide direct support to the attorneys 

throughout the agency. The study will look at which and how many different 

positions provide direct legal support, the grade levels and career ladders of the 

jobs, and the real and perceived differences among jobs with different 

classifications and titles. Results of the study will be used to assess the adequacy 

and effectiveness of current legal support occupational groupings, to construct 

potential legal support program improvements, and to develop recruitment 

strategies for legal support positions. 

• Workforce Mix In 1996, the agency began an Honors Paralegal Program to relieve 

attorneys of the routine tasks in investigations and litigation, and to allow them to 

focus on complex matters of policy, analysis, and strategy. Honors Paralegals are 

recent college graduates, hired at the GS-7 level under expedited procedures of the 

Outstanding Scholar Program, and generally work for the agency for one to three 

years under term appointments before moving on to graduate or professional 

school. The Bureaus of Competition and Consumer Protection and the Office of 

the General Counsel participate in the program, which has approximately 50 

Honors Paralegals at any given time. The Bureau of Economics established a 

similar program, focusing on recent college graduates with degrees in economics 

to provide technical support to Ph.D. economists. 

• Delayering The agency also examines program decision processes to eliminate 

layers of review. For example, several years ago, the Bureau of Competition 

removed a level of management from its reporting structure which streamlined 

decision making on recommendations to the Commission concerning 

investigations and litigation. The Bureau of Consumer Protection also streamlined 

review to ensure that actions were considered at an early stage, thus eliminating 

unnecessary work on investigations and projects. The Office of General Counsel 

capped the number of reviewers’ signatures on official memoranda at two, 

speeding recommendations to the Commission and other agency actions. The 

General Counsel also delegated approval or decision making authority to 

lower-level managers on several types of matters. 

• Restructuring In 1999, the FTC restructured its regional office system to use 

FTE more efficiently. The agency closed two offices (Boston and Denver) located in 

areas of the country with a relatively low incidence of consumer fraud. The agency 

also consolidated Regional competition mission FTE into three offices (New York, 

San Francisco, and Seattle) so they could handle resource-intensive merger cases 

more effectively. Previously, the FTC also consolidated regional consumer contact 

functions into the FTC’s centralized Consumer Response Center (CRC). The CRC 

now offers two toll-free telephone numbers that allow consumers from across the 

country to contact the FTC with fraud and identity theft complaints and requests 

for consumer education materials. 

Initiative: Competitive Sourcing

• FAIR Act The FTC identified 53 commercial FTE in its 2003 FAIR Act inventory. 

In the past two years, the FTC has converted 15 percent of its total 2000 baseline 

year’s commercial FTE inventory to commercial positions. In 2004, the agency will 

 Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request 

President’s Management Agenda
60 

commence a comprehensive examination of its workforce functions to look for 

opportunities to compete commercial positions. One area of focus will be on 

several functions currently performed by clerical and administrative staff who will 

retire over the next five years. 

• Reimbursable Support Service Arrangements The FTC streamlined clerical 

support, administrative, and technical functions, and replaced positions with 

reimbursable support service arrangements with other federal agencies. The areas 

in which these changes occurred include significant agency services such as 

payroll/personnel, accounting/payment system operations, health unit, 

retirement counseling, and the transit subsidy program. 

• Performance Based Service Contracting The FTC has exceeded OMB’s 20 

percent target of using performance-based contracts for services. The agency’s 

largest service contracts are performance-based, including: the National Do Not 

Call Registry, the Consumer Response Center, Computer Help Desk Services, and 

Consumer Redress Fund Administration. 

Initiative: Expanding e-Government

• National Do Not Call Registry The FTC launched the National Do Not Call 

Registry on June 27, 2003 to make it easier and more efficient for consumers to 

stop getting telemarketing calls they do not want. Consumers can register online 

or by calling a toll-free number. Registration is free and is available in both 

English and Spanish. Consumers are adding their telephone numbers to the 

National Do Not Call Registry at a vigorous pace. More than 55 million telephone 

numbers have been logged into the registry. The effort also demonstrates how 

agencies of the federal and state governments can work together, each using their 

particular jurisdiction and expertise, to protect U.S. consumers. 

• e-Government The FTC has been a leader in the use of technology and the 

Internet to inform citizens of its mission without having to enlarge its workforce 

significantly. Starting in the mid 1990s, the FTC began building interlinked public 

consumer protection Web sites, many in connection with other domestic or foreign 

law enforcement agencies, to educate consumers and to collect and analyze data 

on a broad range of consumer protection issues, including high-tech fraud and 

identity theft. In June 2003, the FTC premiered a newly designed 

http://www.ftc.gov Web site. The new design reflects a year-long effort of an 

agency-wide web design working group. The new site provides better navigation, a 

faster load time, and a cleaner look. This is the first phase of a complete Web site 

redesign, which will be implemented over the next several months. 

• Integrated One-Stop Systems The FTC Web site, http://www.ftc.gov provides a 

wide array of information about the actions and operations of the agency, and direct access to consumer and business education information and publications. In 

the last three years, electronic distribution of education materials has surpassed 

print distribution. The site also permits citizens to file online complaints about 

consumer fraud and identity theft. These complaints are used to target the 

agency’s law enforcement and education efforts. Consumers currently can access 

the Web site (including the complaint form) in four different languages. Through 

the http://www.consumer.gov/sentinel link, consumers can view summary data 

collected by the FTC, such as the scams that garner the most frequent consumer 

 Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request 

President’s Management Agenda
61 

complaints; the scams that cost consumers most; the number of identity theft 

complaints, by state; the types of identity theft most frequently reported; and how 

to spot and avoid fraud and deception online and off. The FTC Web site also has a 

direct link to the government-wide public site, http://www.firstgov.gov, and to the 

Small Business Administration’s (SBA) one-stop services: the U.S. Business 

Advisor (http://www.business.gov) and SBA’s online business guide to legal and 

regulatory information (http://www.businesslaw.gov). 

• Citizen Information Access The FTC for many years has recognized that the 

complexity of the federal government makes it difficult for citizens to know where 

to go for information and assistance on consumer issues. In 1997, the FTC led a 

group of five agencies with consumer protection responsibilities to create a Web 

site, http://www.consumer.gov, as a "one-stop" link to a broad range of federal 

consumer information resources available online. Consumer.gov links to 

documents located on the Web sites of its participating federal agencies – which 

have grown from the original five to 180 agencies. This site has become the portal 

for interagency consumer information that the federal government provides to the 

public through http://www.firstgov.gov. 

• Cross-agency Information Sharing The FTC Consumer Response Center 

receives consumer complaints and inquiries through two toll-free telephone lines 

and postal and electronic mail. Information from these complaints and inquiries 

is collected in a database, which contains nearly 3.2 million entries. The FTC also 

developed and hosts a secure Web site, Consumer Sentinel, that makes the 

consumer complaints accessible to other federal, state, local, and international law 

enforcement partners. The more than one million fraud complaints in the 

database are accessible to more than 940 law enforcement partners (e.g., the FBI, 

the Postal Inspection Service, 50 State Attorneys General), and the nearly 500,000 

identity theft complaints are accessible to more than 840 domestic partners (e.g., 

the Secret Service, Social Security Administration Inspector General, U.S. Attorney 

Offices). Collecting this information in one database and sharing it electronically 

with other agencies reduces redundancy and helps the law enforcement 

community identify general trends in consumer issues, track the illegal activities 

of specific businesses, and coordinate investigations and litigation. In February 

2003, Consumer Sentinel received an Excellence.Gov finalist award from the 

Industry Advisory Council’s E-Gov Shared Interest Group, in partnership with the 

Federal CIO Council. 

• Electronic Filing The FTC is close to implementing a process that will permit 

electronic filing of required information about proposed mergers and acquisitions 

under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Premerger Notification Act. This system will be 

shared with the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division. A single 

integrated system is more efficient for business filers as well as taxpayers. 

Business need only file at a single location and the taxpayer does not need to 

support two redundant systems. The FTC has managed the development and 

deployment of this integrated bi-agency system and will operate this system on 

behalf of the FTC and DOJ. Electronic options will allow businesses to select the 

submission method that is most effective and efficient for them, and will reduce 

the government’s administrative cost of reviewing and analyzing the filings. 

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President’s Management Agenda
62 

• Reducing Litigation Burden The growing use of sophisticated electronic systems 

and software in litigation requires the FTC to keep its technology current to 

remain competitive in the courtroom. The FTC has developed the ability to 

interface with computerized document production systems that allow law firms to 

provide documents and information to the agency more efficiently. In addition, the 

agency is employing state-of-the-art computerized systems that support agency 

attorneys’ litigation preparation and courtroom presentations. 

• Developing e-Procurement The FTC’s planned and ongoing procurement 

enhancements are designed around the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE), 

one of the Administration’s e-government initiatives. As requirements arise, the 

FTC uses the government-wide FED BIZ OPPS Web site. This site provides a 

single location at which interested vendors can view and, if interested, respond to 

government requirements for goods and services. The FTC also converted to the 

Business Process Network (BPN) Web site, an expansion of Central Contract 

Registration Web site. This site provides Federal agencies with a single source for 

vendor contact and payment information and requires that each vendor maintain 

all appropriate information on a current basis. Additionally, the FTC plans to 

register in BPN for intra-governmental transactions. The FTC is also preparing for 

the implementation of the new Federal Procurement Data System - Next 

Generation, a central point for consolidated collection and access of statistical and 

management information related to government acquisitions. 

• Information Requirements The FTC has initiated an agency-wide management 

information requirements project and related Intranet site to provide managers 

with ready information to support data gathering and decision making. An effort 

is underway to develop standard data definitions for use across agency 

applications. An important goal of the project is to provide timely, accurate, and 

useful standard reports and ad hoc reporting capabilities. 

• Improving Productivity An analysis of agency information requirements revealed 

that efficient and effective document management is the primary need. In 

response, the FTC implemented a comprehensive document management system 

with the fundamental goal of streamlining the process of sending documents and 

other information through any electronic channel (e.g., Internet, database, 

e-mail), in any spoken language, regardless of its original data format. The cycle 

of creating, editing, approving, publishing, and removing outdated content 

traditionally has been filled with impediments. The agency is continuing to 

re-engineer basic work processes to enable targeted, accurate interchange of 

electronic information without technological barriers. Users will be able to 

generate, publish, and find information with virtually no learning curve or 

technical assistance. By establishing consistent work flows and templates that 

cross organizational boundaries, the system will assure that information from 

across the agency can be readily shared, re-used, re-combined, and re-purposed 

to a variety of uses. 

Initiative: Improved Financial Performance

• Audited Financial Statements Before there was a statutorily mandated 

requirement, the FTC prepared Audited Financial Statements in a timely manner 

that comply with government-wide accounting standards for six consecutive years 

 Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request 

President’s Management Agenda
63 

(1997 - 2002). Each year, the agency has received an unqualified opinion with no 

material weaknesses. 

• Accurate and Timely Financial Information The FTC maintains a small, highly 

skilled, in-house financial staff and contracts with the Department of Interior’s 

National Business Center (NBC) for more routine accounting, payroll, personnel, 

and voucher payment services. The result is the best use of agency resources and 

a significant improvement in the accuracy and timeliness of financial data 

available to agency managers. The FTC meets all Treasury, OMB, and agency 

financial reporting deadlines. 

• Federal Accounting and Transaction Standards The FTC is in general 

compliance with all Federal accounting principles and standards. The FTC’s 

accounting system conforms in all material respects with the principles, 

standards, and related requirements specified in the Federal Financial 

Management Improvement Act of 1996. The Joint Financial Management 

Improvement Program has evaluated and qualified the American Management 

System’s Federal Financial System (FFS) software, used by NBC. 

• Integrating Financial and Performance Management Systems The FTC 

maintains a data warehouse, updated daily, that accommodates both financial 

and program performance data. Costs are related to Mission activities in the data 

warehouse and support day-to-day operations. Efforts are continuing to improve 

the integration of the data by tying a broader range of costs (e.g., training, 

information technology, performance awards, furnishings) to program performance 

activities in the financial system. 

• Purchasing Improvements In 2003, the FTC improved financial services for 

credit card transactions. Financial staff were trained on a new and interactive 

online verification and reconciliation system for credit card transactions. 

Guidance and instructions were developed and issued. To ensure FTC credit card 

users are familiar with the new process, training and certification requirements 

were established. The FTC also expanded the use of GSA Advantage, an online 

supply purchasing system, to its operating bureaus. This system permits online 

purchase of supplies at a competitive price through a streamlined and paperless 

acquisitions process. 

• Cash Management The FTC implemented a paper check conversion process to 

deposit checks electronically with the Federal Reserve Bank to facilitate the 

processing of merger filing fees and other payments. This process saves staff time, 

provides an electronic record of deposit, and creates a seven-year archive of 

checks with a Federal Reserve sponsored deadline. Also, the FTC coordinated the 

seamless use of existing Treasury fee deposit and tracking capabilities to collect 

and track telemarketers’ payments associated with the National Do Not Call 

Registry. The agency also worked to ensure that it can track, through a secure 

database, certain payment information that may be too personal to house 

elsewhere. 

• Capitalization Improvements The FTC improved its policy for agency-wide 

capitalization of FTC-developed software and leasehold improvements. It also 

improved tracking of contract service obligations and expenditures that cross 

fiscal years. 

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President’s Management Agenda
64 

Initiative: Integrating Budget and Performance

• Integrating Planning/Evaluation and Budget The FTC assigns responsibilities 

to its budget staff according to program area. The FTC’s Budget Office works 

closely with the programs to build budget plans that ensure the most efficient use 

of the agency’s resources to achieve the goals of the annual GPRA Performance 

Plan. The agency also monitors implementation of operating plans by programs 

through the use of financial systems and periodic reports. The Budget Office 

conducts detailed reviews of the status of programs’ budget execution throughout 

the fiscal year to ensure that funds are sufficient to meet objectives. The FTC 

requires program managers to report on GPRA Performance Measures each 

quarter, and the FTC’s Commissioners review this information twice a year. 

• Linking Goals and Objectives to Results The FTC’s Strategic Plan under the 

Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) identifies five-year strategies 

and performance measures that are an integral part of the fiscal year budget 

requests. Over the past year, the FTC re-examined its performance measures and 

revamped those that did not effectively measure its outcomes. The FTC developed 

a Strategic Plan for FY 2003 - 2008 that articulates strategies and measures that 

effectively relate to outcomes and that integrate budget and performance. In 

addition, the annual Performance Plans provide an assessment of the savings and 

benefits to consumers and businesses expected from the requested level of 

resources. Budget requests tie to the GPRA objectives, and all requests to 

increase resources are justified in the Performance Plan and tie to programs. 

• Aligning Budget Accounts and Program Activities The agency allocates 

resources to programs based on program goals and workload projections. As 

workload projections change throughout the year, the agency shifts resource 

allocations accordingly, making certain to comply with Congressional parameters. 

The FTC uses its annual GPRA Performance Plan as the guideline to align agency 

resources to achieve targets. FTC budget staff work closely with program 

managers to ensure alignment of budget accounts, staff, and program activities to 

support program goals. 

• Integrating Technology The FTC implements a life cycle management approach 

to managing and developing agency technology. Through this approach, the 

agency identifies existing products and services, determines how frequently each 

should be reassessed, and schedules reassessments for the next several years. 

When a new project is proposed, technical staff evaluate its cost and relative need, 

and, if justified, make a recommendation to senior program managers. Review 

and decision making by program managers ensures that technological projects are 

aligned with the agency mission and integrated with performance in budget 

requests. 

• Improving Integration The agency is working to improve the link between 

performance and budget, both by refining the selection and the measurement of 

performance goals and measures, and by developing improved management 

processes for data use and analysis. Over time, this work will enhance agency 

performance by improving the quality, access, and timeliness of management 

information throughout the FTC.

 Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Request 

President’s Management Agenda