How Zohran Mamdani Aide Lina Khan Wants To Amplify His Power With Little-Used Laws

Former Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan said she's exploring ways to maximize New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's executive authority through little-used laws already in place.

Khan, who Mamdani named as co-chair of his transition team last week, said in an interview with Pod Save America host Tommy Vietor that she's investigating the extent of mayoral powers in preparation for Mamdani taking office on Jan. 1.

Khan is advising the mayor-elect on economic policy and personnel and said part of her job is making sure his administration can deliver on its "extraordinarily ambitious agenda" of making the city more affordable.

"Coming from the FTC, I'm going to be especially focused on things like, how do we make sure that we have a full accounting of all of the laws and authorities that the mayor can unilaterally deploy?" Khan said in the interview, which was taped last week and will be aired in full on Nov. 23.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, ran on a platform offering free citywide bus service, free and universal childcare for children 6 months to 5 years old, and freezing the rent on the city's more than 1 million rent-stabilized units. His plans require about $10 billion in new revenue, most of which Mamdani, 34, has said will come from raising taxes on millionaires and corporations. 

That may prove difficult to implement. Tax policy is determined in Albany, and Governor Kathy Hochul has said she has no plans to raise taxes. The governor has also cast doubt on the viability of free buses, the revenues of which are partly used to pay the Metropolitan Transit Authority's $17 billion of farebox bonds.

"A lot of what he is going to be looking to deliver is going to be requiring working closely with other institutional actors, be it the governor, be it the legislature, but he should also have a lot of ability to do things unilaterally, and so we want to make sure he has a good sense of what that is," said Khan, 36, according to a transcript of the interview.

Khan is planning to look at recently-enacted and proposed legislation and regulations affecting algorithmic price discrimination, surveillance pricing and junk fees, according to a person familiar with the matter. 

The comments by Khan, who drew the ire of Wall Street dealmakers throughout her tenure in Washington, spurred criticism by hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb. Loeb opposed Mamdani's candidacy and donated to Mayor Eric Adams' re-election effort and then Andrew Cuomo's campaign against Mamdani.

"I would hire this person if I were dead set on crafting Soviet style centralized control regime, instituting repressive policies and destroying the economy," Loeb posted Wednesday on X, referring to Khan. "But we should give @ZohranKMamdani a chance."

Khan became the youngest person ever to chair the FTC, taking the helm of the antitrust and consumer protection agency at age 32 under former President Joe Biden. She became a flashpoint for critics of his administration's regulatory agenda, with business groups and billionaires pillorying her after the FTC lost two major merger challenges against Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. in her first year. 

In the final weeks of her tenure, the FTC brought a lawsuit against alcohol distributor Southern Glazer's Wine and Spirits alleging price discrimination by reviving the obscure Robinson-Patman Act - the first time the FTC brought an action under that law in a quarter-century. Khan placed a fresh focus on it as part of a push to expand antitrust scrutiny on big business. 

"One thing that was really shocking to me at the FTC was just how much dormant and unused and underused authorities had just been on the books," Khan said in the interview. "So I want to make sure that to the extent that the city has a robust set of laws that the mayor can enforce, that we're going and understanding what is the full authority."

When asked if her ambitions in City Hall include finding new ways to take on technology companies, she said the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection carries out regulatory functions similar to what the FTC does at the federal level that can be used across industries including technology, health care, and food.

"They do have a whole set of laws that are designed to make sure that companies are not abusing their power, and so, I'll look forward to them being able to deploy that," Khan said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)