Sen. Warren et al. Unveil Bill to Restore Administrative State

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and several of her colleagues unveiled a new bill Tuesday looking to restore powers of the administrative state after the Supreme Court scaled back unelected bureaucrats’ powers in June.

Warren — along with fellow Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Edward Markey of Massachusetts and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who typically caucuses with Democrats — rolled out the Stop Corporate Capture Act on Tuesday, which would essentially overturn the Supreme Court’s landmark June decision ending Chevron deference.

Formerly a key tool for federal bureaucrats to make and enforce regulations, Chevron deference held that courts should defer to executive agencies’ interpretations of statutory ambiguities in laws pertaining to a given regulatory action.

The Supreme Court’s June 28 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo explicitly rejected Chevron deference, a move that many environmental and progressive activists largely decried and which many free-market and conservative voices praised as an important step toward reining in bureaucratic excess.

Warren’s bill would codify Chevron deference into law and also make other changes to the federal rulemaking process, such as streamlining the comment period and requiring public commenters to disclose any industry-funded research or possible conflicts of interest.

“Giant corporations are using far-right, unelected judges to hijack our government and undermine the will of Congress,” Warren said of the bill. “The Stop Corporate Capture Act will bring transparency and efficiency to the federal rulemaking process, and most importantly, will make sure corporate interest groups can’t substitute their preferences for the judgment of Congress and the expert agencies.”

Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal has also already introduced a similar measure in the House.

The Supreme Court’s opinion could mean that some of the Biden administration’s flagship environmental policies, such as its tailpipe emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles that have been termed an electric vehicle mandate by critics, could be adversely affected, several energy policy experts with experience in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told the Daily Caller News Foundation on the day the decision came down.