U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will propose a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries as part of a larger plan to lower consumer costs, her campaign announced in a preview of her first policy speech for her presidential campaign.
The Democratic nominee promises to address price gouging and price-fixing within her first 100 days in office, alongside other steps aimed at easing the burden of high prices, which have impacted American households and contributed to many voters’ negative view of President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.
Harris plans to instruct the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies to investigate and penalize “big corporations” that violate the rules, and to find ways to combat price fixing and anti-competitive practices in the food and grocery industries, her campaign said late Wednesday night.
Although price controls have a mixed track record in the U.S., Harris’ team is working to swiftly add some proposals to the Biden administration’s achievements and goals, which are central to her campaign platform. She will also outline plans to reduce prescription drug and housing costs in an economic address during a visit to Raleigh, North Carolina on Friday.
Former President Donald Trump has made inflation, which soared early in the Biden administration during the Covid-19 crisis, a key point in his argument that he should be returned to the White House. The Republican candidate and his supporters blame Democratic spending programs for the surge in prices for food, gasoline, and many other goods.
The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Harris acknowledges that “price fluctuations are typical in free markets,” her campaign stated that there is “a clear distinction between fair pricing in competitive markets, and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business.”
Americans, the campaign added, “can see that difference in their grocery bills” as prices have remained high even as corporations’ costs have stabilized and their profits have stayed high.
Harris, in her speech, will specifically target the highly consolidated meat industry, labeling its processing middlemen “particularly egregious” price fixers with a history of being found to have illegally manipulated prices.
She also plans to instruct her administration to carefully examine proposed mergers between large food companies, focusing on whether they will result in higher grocery prices for consumers. This work would include continuing to scrutinize the proposed merger between Kroger Co. and Albertsons Cos., which faces challenges from the FTC and several states.
The Harris campaign argues that her proposals “stand in stark contrast” to Trump’s economic agenda, which it said “would increase inflation and costs for middle-class families” by imposing tariffs on imports of household goods including groceries.