Lydia Wheeler reported yesterday at The Hill Online that, “Senate Republicans unveiled legislation Thursday to crack down on regulatory overreach.
“The Separation of Powers Restoration Act would clarify the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) to state that courts, not agencies, are to interpret all questions of law, including both statutes and regulations.”
The article noted that, “The lawmakers say federal agencies have continued to accumulate more power since the Supreme Court’s 1984 ruling in Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council Inc. That case, creating the Chevron doctrine, said that courts should defer to an agency’s interpretation of a statute as long as the statute is ‘ambiguous‘ and the agency’s reading is ‘reasonable.’
“Lawmakers say that deference allows agencies to rewrite laws and issue regulations as they see fit.”
