I Fought the Law

Who would defend unlawful regulations?

Rubio announces "reorganization" of State Department to cut "bloated" bureaucracy

Better to do five things well than twenty things badly.

‘Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced a "reorganization" of the State Department, with plans to make staffing cuts and consolidate domestic offices.

‘The cuts aren't happening immediately, but a senior State Department official told reporters that Rubio's announcement sets forth a road map for future cuts, and Congress has been notified to set the process in motion. The senior official said State Department undersecretaries for the various bureaus must in about 30 days present a plan on how they will eliminate positions.

‘Rubio reposted "X" posts in which Free Press journalists said the move would entail closing 132 offices, moving 137 offices elsewhere, and directing undersecretaries to reduce personnel by anywhere between 15-17%. Another senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday that the personnel reduction would be 22%.’

The Role of the White House in Regulatory Reform

Some complex regulations take years to gestate. After being ambushed once, Reagan signed an executive order to restore political control to making regulatory policy. This did not last. Political control over regulation waxed and waned from administration to administration.

‘With President Donald J. Trump’s election, regulatory reform is back in the headlines. John D. Graham’s book, Regulatory Reform From Nixon To Biden, provides an important and timely treatment of the topic. By taking a historical approach, Graham captures the ebb and flow of presidential efforts to shape—or stop—agency regulations before they are proposed, in order to bring regulation and deregulation in line with the President’s priorities.’

Notice & Comment

“Good Cause” to Deregulate, by Eli Nachmany

Will Trump’s move to fast-track deregulation survive legal challenge? Will Loper come into play? Who is going to defend unlawful regulations?

‘Deregulation season is in full bloom at the White House. In a recent memorandum, President Donald Trump directed agencies to employ the Administrative Procedure Act’s “good cause” exception to accelerate repeals of unlawful agency rules. After years of regulatory overreach, President Trump’s bold action will help ensure that the executive branch gets back within the boundaries set by Congress quickly. The alternative would be contrary to the public interest.

‘The President has taken several important deregulatory actions within the last month. These include the memorandum instructing agencies to repeal unlawful regulations and an executive order requiring agencies to “sunset” certain regulations governing energy production. Additionally, in a separate executive order involving showerhead water pressure, the President took an innovative step: When he directed the Secretary of Energy to rescind the agency’s interpretation of the term “showerhead,” the President determined that ordinary notice-and-comment procedure was unnecessary because he was himself ordering the repeal.

‘President Trump’s moves are consistent with his longstanding support for curbing regulatory overreach. As he did in his first term in office, the President is walking the walk on deregulation by carrying out his constitutional obligation to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” ‘Over the last several decades, federal agencies have issued a tidal wave of rules based on their increasingly expansive views of their regulatory authorities. But for a regulation to be valid, it must be within the ambit of a law passed by Congress. Recent Supreme Court decisions—like Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, West Virginia v. EPA, and Sackett v. EPA—underscore that many regulations have strayed from the limits that Congress has imposed.’