Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Monday his pick for leading the city Consumer and Worker Protection Department — a key agency in pressing his aggressive pro-worker agenda.
Sam Levine, who previously worked at the Federal Trade Commission in the Biden administration, will serve in the role.
Mamdani, at a lower Manhattan news conference announcing the appointment, praised Levine as “unafraid to take on entrenched interests.”
“He will make [ Consumer and Worker Protection] a force to be reckoned with, one that refuses to allow corporations to treat their employees as expendable,” the mayor-elect said. “When he succeeds, that success will be felt in a city that is vibrant with flourishing small businesses, in markets full of people who can afford to buy gifts and goods for themselves and their loved ones, in workers who know that their leaders, in fact, have their backs, and in an economy that is fairer and more accessible for all.”
The agency is a crucial part of Mamdani’s agenda, and the incoming mayor has said he intends to remodel the agency into an aggressive consumer watchdog. He’s promised to double the agency’s roughly $65 million budget — a campaign promise he reiterated Monday — and expand staff in order to go after more bad actors.
CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani speaks during a press conference Monday to announce the appointment of Sam Levine (right) as a Commissioner of the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images)
“As commissioner for the Department of Consumer [and Worker Protection], I’ll make sure that every gig worker, small-business owner, independent contractor and consumer, knows their rights and knows with confidence that they have a champion in the city government,” Levine said.
The pick garnered praise from Lina Khan, the FTC chairwoman in the Biden administration and a co-chairwoman of Mamdani’s transition team.
“Levine is an extraordinary public servant who will enforce the law without fear or favor, ensuring that consumers and workers across NYC get a fair shake,” she wrote on social media.
The mayor-elect also recently appointed Julie Su as his deputy mayor for economic justice, a brand-new role. Su was acting U.S. labor secretary under President Joe Biden. Su will oversee the Consumer and Worker Protection Department.