Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani Monday announced his pick for leading the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection — a key agency in pressing Mamdani’s aggressive pro-worker agenda.
Sam Levine, who previously worked at the Federal Trade Commission under Lina Khan, will serve in the role.
Mamdani praised Levine as “unafraid to take on entrenched interests” at a lower Manhattan press conference announcing the appointment.
“He will make DCWP 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 local protection, I’ll make sure that every big 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 Khan, the FTC chair under the Biden Administration who’s a co-chair of Mamdani’s transition.
“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 the acting U.S. Department of Labor secretary under President Biden. Su will oversee the DCWP.
