March 11 (Reuters) - Gail Slater, President Donald

Trump's pick to oversee the U.S. Department of Justice's

antitrust division, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The department's antitrust division enforces laws against

illegal monopolies and anticompetitive business behavior,

alongside the Federal Trade Commission.

Slater, a veteran antitrust attorney and former economic

adviser to Vice President JD Vance, has said that her top

priority as assistant attorney general will be to protect

consumers by scrutinizing industries such as healthcare, tech

and agriculture.

Former antitrust enforcers from both Republican and

Democratic administrations have praised Slater's qualifications,

as have antitrust hawks in Washington.

"President Trump is making crystal clear he's continuing

this term what he started in his last term: The bipartisan

antitrust law-enforcement effort to hold accountable the

trillion-dollar Big Tech monopolists," said Mike Davis, former

counsel to Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

The Justice Department and state attorneys general are going

to trial in April seeking an order that would require Alphabet's

Google to sell its Chrome browser to promote

competition in online search. The department is also pursuing

antitrust cases against Apple ( AAPL ), LiveNation and

Visa.

Slater said in written replies to the Senate that while she

expects the Trump administration to settle more merger cases,

she sees common ground with her predecessors on protecting

workers and scrutinizing dominant players buying small rivals.

Policy groups including Heritage Action, the political arm

of the conservative Heritage Foundation, and the Tech Oversight

Project, a group aligned with the progressive left of the

Democratic party, have supported Slater's confirmation.

"The diverse voices and interests that have lined up in

support of her nomination reflect that people want to see

corporate accountability - not at the expense of economic

growth, but as a means to achieving it," said Amanda Lewis, an

antitrust attorney at Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca who previously

worked alongside Slater at the FTC.

Democrats pressed Slater at her hearing in February on

whether she would take illegal or unethical action at Trump's

behest.

"If confirmed, I will always follow the law, as well as

uphold my oath to support and defend the Constitution," she said

after the hearing, while adding she did not anticipate any such

request.