WASHINGTON – Senate and House Republicans introduced legislation on Thursday that would make the courts, rather than federal agencies, responsible for interpreting and determining the reasonableness of federal rules.
The companion bills in the Senate and House, both called the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, would give the courts the power to decide the appropriateness of statutes and regulations.
Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and other lawmakers said the bills "restore regulatory accountability through judicial review" and put a halt to the federal government's adoption of "expensive and often unnecessary rules that strain family budgets and impede our ability to create jobs."
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. specifically criticized the Environmental Protection Agency, which he said has been "among the worst offenders" because of its costly regulatory actions.
Hatch, one of 11 sponsors of the Senate bill, said courts should be the only "truly independent" check on regulators.
"Our bill restores accountability to the regulatory process by ensuring that the courts say what the law is, not what the agencies wish the law would be," he said.
The bill aims to put a stop to the precedent set by the Supreme Court in its 1984 ruling in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc. and subsequent rulings. In the 1984 ruling, the high court said the 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." The Republicans contend that, in practice, these terms are interpreted extraordinarily leniently for agencies.
Returning to the ability to interpret federal rules to the courts is in keeping with the separation of powers set forth by the Constitution, the Republicans said. Under that concept, the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government have the ability to hold each other in check.
