Congress in a Post-Chevron World

The House Administration Committee today held a hearing on regulatory reform titled “The Post-Civil War CongressChevron The World”. The title refers to the anticipated radical change in the conduct of the administrative state after June 28, 2024. Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo a decision that means the end Chevron doctrine of respect.

Chevron respect, established in 1984 Chevron USA, Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.. decision, required courts to defer to reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes by federal agencies. Most Drifter the opinion concluded that such submissiveness violates the principle of separation of powers by unduly increasing executive powers and weakening judicial oversight.

I had the opportunity to testify and present, as is my custom, Fred Smith’s unique, hard-hitting case for radical regulatory liberalization and the reduction of federal authority itself. A slightly modified version of my oral remarks is pasted below; a link to my full written testimony is available on the committee hearings website.

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Chairman Steil, Committee Member Morelle, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify about the role of Congress in the post-Chevron world. My name is Wayne Crews, and I am the Fred L. Smith Jr. Fellow in Regulatory Studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Federal spending gets the attention, but the hidden tax of regulation affects every aspect of our lives. Code of Federal Regulations exceeds 188,000 pages.

In 2023 alone, agencies issued 3,000 regulations compared to just 65 public bills passed by Congress. Costs remain unaccounted for, especially those from independent agencies that now dominate whole-of-government efforts like the climate crisis and net-zero energy policy, AI, equity, and competition.

Congress must regain legislative power from the executive branch, but above all it must curb its own interventionist tendencies.

There are many elements that appear in my written comments, but they all require that Congress, and this Commission in particular, muster the appropriate resources and staff to conduct rigorous regulatory oversight and disclosures, replacing the weakened White House version.

End Chevron respect means a belated reaffirmation of the separation of powers and a check on excessive delegation. Nevertheless, it is crucial to recognize the extent to which advocates of regulation will mobilize in response. While extraordinary expansions of regulatory power have occurred in ChevronUnder WA, most of the administrative apparatus that could be controlled had been established long before and remained intact.

Especially since COVID-19, the problem is not about agencies interpreting unclear regulations, Drifter than implementation by agencies unambiguous statues. Biden-era Inflation, Infrastructure, and CHIPS laws are incredibly regulatory even before administrators pick up a pencil.

Therefore, there are workarounds that supporters of regulation can use later on.Chevron world, including:

• Firstly, more coordination on the potential, unambiguous and legislation with specific purposes, such as the CARES Act and the TikTok ban;
• Second, the seduction of the private sector through subsidies, grants and partnerships to bend to the influence of interventionist legislation and cartelization;
• Third, increasing federal influence, through hundreds of billions of dollars in public procurement and contracting;
• And fourth, replacing notice and comment rules with guidance documents on other regulatory matters.

To prepare, a prominent but neglected new GAO report makes recommendations for oversight that this Commission should follow, including establishing a Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis. Done properly, CORA would challenge flawed assumptions about the agency’s authority and avoid the erroneous assumption that market failure outweighs policy failure.

Other steps are also needed to strengthen GAO, such as repealing Biden’s rule on OMB Circular A-4 and ensuring that existing but ignored regulatory reform rules are enforced.

Subsequently, steps were taken to introduce several new legislative reforms:

• First, pass the REINS Act, preferably under the better name of its predecessor: the Congressional Responsibility Act.
• Second, by taking up the Democrats’ idea for a great regulatory budget.
• Third, the creation of a bipartisan Commission on Reducing Regulation.
• Four, reinstatement of the “one in, two out” rule and expiration of the regulations.
• Fifth, and most importantly, reforms should be introduced in the use of agency guidance documents, including banning their use.
• Finally, an easy target would be annual regulatory reporting in the style of the federal budget historical tables.

A generation ago, a series of regulatory reforms benefiting state and local governments, small businesses and consumers were passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

But in today’s fusion of hyper-spending and regulation, the government steers while the market merely rows, as CEI founder Fred Smith put it. The costs of intervention are rising even without written notice-and-comment rules.

Correcting overdelegation is key, but the real challenge is Congress’s disregard for its enumerated powers. The answer requires decentralization, restoring federalism, and ending the abuse of crises, as happened with COVID and the financial collapse.

By increasing resources and supporting reforms, this Committee can play a key role in reducing overregulation and increasing jobs and wealth. You don’t have to tell the grass to grow, but Down I need to get these stones off him. Thanks again for inviting me to testify. I look forward to your questions.