Harris to call for federal ban on price-gouging in Friday speech

Vice President Harris on Friday will outline a series of economic policy proposals as part of her presidential campaign, including a call for a federal ban on corporate price-gouging.

Harris will deliver remarks in North Carolina, a battleground state where her campaign said she will focus on plans to lower the cost of groceries. The vice president will say that soaring meat prices in particular have contributed to a spike in grocery bills, and she will call out corporate consolidation in the market.

The Harris campaign said the vice president will outline a plan for her first 100 days in office if elected that would lay out a federal ban on price gouging, making clear that large companies can’t exploit consumers to increase profits.

She will call for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate corporations that break such rules, and she will push for increased support for small businesses that can break into the market and compete against major meat processors.

In addition, Harris will say her administration would crack down on unfair mergers and acquisitions that further consolidate the market, giving a small number of corporations the ability to increase prices.

Harris’s remarks in Raleigh will, in some ways, echo actions and rhetoric from President Biden earlier in his term, when he sought to crack down on meat processing conglomerates responsible for higher prices.

Friday’s speech will mark the first time Harris will deliver a policy-focused speech since she launched her presidential campaign in late July. She has faced criticism from the Trump campaign and other Republicans for failing thus far to offer a substantive platform.

Former President Trump on Wednesday held a rally in North Carolina that was intended to focus specifically on economic policy. He sought to blame Harris for inflation that has persistently kept prices of groceries, gas and other goods high during the Biden administration. He blamed Harris for serving as the tiebreaking vote on major Democratic spending bills.

“Inflation is destroying our country. It’s destroying our families,” Trump said. “We will target everything from car affordability to housing affordability to insurance cost to supply chain issues.”

Trump’s economic proposals have included extending his 2017 tax cuts, increasing oil drilling — though U.S. oil production hit record levels in 2023 — and imposing tariffs on all imports, a move some experts have warned could worsen inflation.