The GOP-controlled House on Thursday passed legislation that would overturn a 1984 Supreme Court ruling that Republicans say handed far too much power to the Executive Branch through the use of federal agency rulemaking processes that cost Americans trillions each year.
“Lawmakers approved the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, or SOPRA, in a mostly party-line 220-211 vote,” Fox News reported.
The outlet added:
Republicans have argued for the last several years that the Supreme Court precedent set in the Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. case effectively told courts that they should defer to federal agencies when they interpret laws passed by Congress as they write regulations. Republicans say that since that ruling, courts have failed to do their due diligence in assessing whether those regulations can be fairly justified under the law.
The lawmaker who sponsored SOPRA, Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., argued on the House floor Thursday that the Supreme Court ruling has given the executive branch vast authority to regulate as it pleases, and often in ways that contradict the intent of Congress.
“Since 1984, when the Supreme Court ruled that courts must defer to an agency’s interpretation of an ambiguous statute rather than what Congress intended, the executive branch has begun usurping the legislative branch to issue regulations with the force of law,” Fitzgerald said. “It is certainly not what our founders intended.”
He went on to say the the cost of these regulations to Americans have continuously climbed over the past few decades.
“The total annual cost of regulation is almost $2 trillion, or about 8 percent of the U.S. GDP,” he said. “If it were a country, for comparison, U.S. regulation would be the world’s eighth largest economy.”
According to GOP Rep. Thomas McClintock of California, the Supreme Court ruling contradicts the original intention of the Constitution, which give the responsibility of lawmaking to Congress while the Executive Branch is responsible for their implementation.
“One brother makes law but cannot enforce it; the other brother enforces law but cannot make it,” he said, according to Fox News.
Democrats explained that Congress does not have the expertise to write specifics into laws, so Congress relies on federal agencies to do that.
Nevertheless, the issue could actually be decided by the high court later this year.
“In the fall, the Supreme Court is expected to hear a dispute between fishermen in New Jersey and the federal government over whether federal rules on fishermen are vastly exceeding what was allowed by Congress,” Fox News reported. “In that case, lower courts have leaned on the 1984 Chevron precedent to say they are giving deference to federal regulators. But the case is now at the Supreme Court, which could decide to overturn the precedent.”
