The Supreme Court has handed down some major rulings recently. It’s making those on the Right and Left rethink everything.
And now a landmark SCOTUS decision forced Republicans to do the unthinkable.
Following a Supreme Court decision that curtailed the power of federal agencies in legal disputes, Senate Republicans are embarking on a significant initiative to further diminish the influence of the “administrative state.”
Recently, the Supreme Court sided with a group of East Coast fishermen who challenged a federal agency’s rule requiring them to pay $700 daily for “at sea monitors.”
The fishermen contended that the rule exceeded the agency’s authority as defined by Congress. This landmark ruling effectively dismantled the Chevron doctrine, a legal principle from the 1980s.
The doctrine mandated that courts defer to a federal agency’s interpretation of its regulatory authority, provided the interpretation was reasonable and Congress had not explicitly addressed the issue.
Senator Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., hailed the Supreme Court’s decision as “a critical blow to the disastrous Chevron deference standard and represents an opportunity for Congress to retake legislative power from agencies and dismantle the administrative state.”
On Thursday, Schmitt, joined by 11 GOP lawmakers, unveiled new legislation aimed at reclaiming legislative authority from administrative agencies and returning it to Congress.
This proposed bill, the Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA), introduces a de novo standard of review within the Administrative Procedure Act.
This change would bar the judiciary from upholding unconstitutional ageGncy deference standards, which Schmitt argues unfairly favor big government over private entities.
Under SOPRA, courts would evaluate cases on their merits without any deference, leveling the playing field for U.S. citizens and businesses challenging regulatory enforcement actions or the validity of agency rules.
A similar bill has already passed the House of Representatives along party lines, and the Senate’s version has garnered 11 co-sponsors so far.
Additionally, a broader coalition of GOP senators is seeking more transparency from 101 executive agencies that have issued over 50 final rules since 2000.
They are requesting detailed information on rule-making, civil enforcement actions, and adjudications to better understand the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision for future oversight.
Senator Cynthia Lummis, R-Wy., emphasized the constitutional mandate that decision-making powers reside with democratically-elected members of Congress, not unelected bureaucrats.
She criticized the Chevron doctrine for giving the administration undue power, allowing President Biden’s agencies to cater to a far-Left agenda and inundate Wyoming residents with excessive regulations.
Lummis is collaborating with her colleagues to restore legislative powers to the people and rein in overreaching agencies.
Schmitt is also leading a working group of 17 senators dedicated to exploring ways to limit the “unlawful exercise of power by the administrative state” and enhance the Senate’s legislative effectiveness on matters previously deferred to agencies.
“For far too long, the deck has been stacked against citizens while these all-powerful alphabet soup agencies run roughshod. Congress has abdicated its duty to legislate to nameless and faceless bureaucrats at agencies dotted around D.C. – it’s time to take that power back and return to a truly representative government,” Schmitt said.
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The first agency they need to start restricting is the EPA. They have overstepped their authority time after time on what many would say Nisan enviroMENTAL farce. I worked in the environmental field for 25yrs and in all of that time I met about 6 EPA officials that an idea of what they were talking about