The Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn a long-standing doctrine that had given regulatory agencies broad discretion to set rules for the entities they cover has set off a call from the Republican Party for multiple regulatory reviews.
The ruling gave courts substantially more power. “Going forward, if agency action is challenged in court, courts will continue to respect the agency’s authority if it has been properly delegated by statute. However, if a law is ambiguous, courts will now get to decide whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority — rather than yielding to the agency,” according to Fisher Phillips.
Justice Elena Kagan predicted June 28 in her dissent in the Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo case that the majority’s decision would “cause a massive shock to the legal system.”
The High Court has remanded nine cases to lower courts as it abandoned the so-called Chevron doctrine. Now, Republicans in the House of Representatives are calling for federal agencies to begin reviews of regulations that could be affected by the decision.
Last week, Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) introduced legislation aimed at limiting the scope of agency regulation.
“This week, House Republican committees are sending letters to their corresponding federal agencies to demand the review of various overreaching regulations in our fight to free the American people from the power-hungry administrative state,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) stated on Wednesday. “Agencies can’t be allowed to run free without any checks on their power — we’ve already seen how frequently federal agencies will abuse their authority. We intend to ensure agencies are held accountable following the court’s ruling and observe the proper checks on their power.”
The letters are signed by the chairs of three House committees — Education and Workforce, Oversight and Agriculture — and addressed to the heads of the Department of Labor, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission and others.
The legislators requested lists of existing regulations that have been challenged in court since 2021 and were upheld based on the Chevron deference, as well as pending rules that could have been defended using the Chevron deference.
