Washington, D.C. — Today, as America faces a merger and acquisition (M&A) “boom” characterized by pay-to-play corruption, the American Economic Liberties Project endorses Senator Cory Booker’s new antitrust enforcement legislation, co-sponsored by Sens. Warren, Murphy, Heinrich, and Hirono, which aims to restore competition by making it easier to unwind large mergers completed during the second Trump-Vance Administration. 

The Correcting Lapsed Enforcement in Antitrust Norms for Mergers Act, or “CLEAN Mergers Act,” would require the breakup of deals valued at $10 billion or more unless merging parties can prove in court that their transactions did not harm competition, raise prices, reduce employment, or otherwise concentrate market power. It also empowers federal enforcers and state attorneys general to revisit smaller deals marked by reports of corruption or other improper political influence, while extending the statute of limitations for merger challenges from four to ten years. And finally, the bill puts merging parties on notice, requiring them to preserve evidence relating to all transactions.

“Merger enforcement has been a dead letter under the Trump Administration, enabling a wave of consolidation that has hurt workers, raised prices, and threatened small businesses,” said Nidhi Hegde, Executive Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “Every corporate executive, lobbyist, and defense counsel in the country is now on notice that the pay-to-merge policy of this Administration will be met with severe business and reputational consequences. The Correcting Lapsed Enforcement in Antitrust Norms for Mergers Act is a necessary step toward restoring real merger oversight. We’re pleased to support and endorse this bill, and urge Congress to pass it swiftly.” 

The CLEAN Mergers Act is a necessary reset. It recognizes that when enforcement fails, whether through neglect or corruption, Congress has both the authority and the responsibility to step in, unwind harmful deals, and restore competitive markets. By shifting the burden onto corporations to prove their mergers are lawful, this bill restores the public interest purpose of antitrust. 

Since early 2025, federal antitrust agencies have failed to meaningfully police mergers amid a seismic wave of consolidation. The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has not blocked a single M&A transaction, while the Federal Trade Commission has challenged only a handful of deals, all under $1 billion. 

Meanwhile, reporting has raised serious concerns about the integrity of merger review. Mergers such as HPE-Juniper, Nexstar-Tegna, Compass-Anywhere Real Estate, and Skydance-Paramount were settled or approved after parties engaged in conduct such as hiring MAGA-affiliated lobbyists, making multi-million dollar payments to President Trump, and censoring the President’s critics in the media. In some instances, DOJ leadership overruled the Antitrust Division and the White House intervened in merger review. Corruption also appears to have already infected the reviews of the Paramount-Warner Bros and Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern mega-mergers. 

The CLEAN Mergers Act addresses this breakdown in merger enforcement by:

• Making it easier to unwind mergers worth at least $10 billion that took place between Jan. 20, 2025 and Jan. 19, 2029, by shifting the burden of proof.  
• Empowering federal enforcers and state attorneys general to investigate — and unwind — potentially corrupt merger clearances
• Extending the statute of limitations for state and federal enforcers and private parties to challenge anticompetitive conduct from four years to ten years
• Requires merging parties to preserve documents relating to their transactions

These reforms, along with recently introduced legislation to end corrupt merger settlements, aim to reverse the damage of recent years and ensure that U.S. antitrust law once again serves its core purpose: protecting competition, consumers, workers, and the public from concentrated corporate power.

Read our fact sheet breaking down the Trump administration’s antitrust record here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.