Goodlatte Bill Would End 'Chevron' Deference
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., introduced the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017, which would abolish judicial principles that defer statutory and regulatory interpretations of agency rulemaking to the executive branch, the lawmaker’s office announced (here). Specifically, the legislation…
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would eliminate the principle of “Chevron” deference, established in 1984 by the Supreme Court, which holds that courts should largely defer to agency interpretations of statutes. The legislation also proposes to erase the 1997-established “Auer doctrine,” which instructs courts to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous executive-branch regulations to determine how regulations should be implemented. The bill would also require agencies to consider the “direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of new regulations on small businesses,” and to devise “flexible” ways to reduce them, according to Goodlatte’s office. Furthermore, the legislation seeks to “force agencies” to publish online timely information about regulations in development and their expected “nature, costs, and timing,” as well as publish “plain-language” summaries online of newly proposed rules, “so the public can understand what agencies actually propose to do,” Goodlatte’s office said.