White House Releases Rulemaking Agenda As MSCI Asks For Regulatory Pause
The Metals Service Center Institute (MSCI) recently joined the National Association of Wholesalers (NAW) and more than 40 other trade associations in sending a letter to President Joe Biden requesting that, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on how courts should approach evaluating the constitutionality of executive branch rulemakings, his administration enact a pause all current rulemakings and halt the implementation of new rules.
As Connecting the Dots reported earlier this summer, that Supreme Court decision overturned one of federal courts’ most-cited precedents, the Chevron doctrine, which had insisted judges defer to executive branch agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous federal laws, provided an agency’s reading was reasonable. In practice, Chevron gave the White House and its executive branch agencies greater leeway to issue regulations. With the court’s recent ruling, that no longer would be the case. Specifically, the decision means:
- Federal courts now must exercise independent legal judgment when evaluating federal executive branch agencies’ regulatory actions instead of deferring to the agencies’ reading of the law; and
- Entities affected by federal regulations now have a stronger footing to contest burdensome regulations.
The letter MSCI and NAW sent to President Biden asks that he “immediately direct all federal agencies to review any regulations that are currently under consideration —including any final rules that have been published but have not yet become effective — to ensure that the proposed regulatory action is clearly authorized by Congress under the U.S. Constitution and the statute(s) it seeks to implement.” Read the full letter here.
As of July 1, 2024, there were more than 1,000 major rules in various stages of review at federal agencies. At least 145 of those rules are estimated to have an impact on the U.S. economy of more than $200 million. Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, it is MSCI and NAM’s opinion that all of these regulations must be reevaluated.
Meanwhile, shortly before NAW and MSCI sent the letter, the Biden administration published the federal government’s Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which offers executive branch agencies’ timelines for the administration’s regulatory agenda. That document included information on the Biden administration’s highly anticipated rule on greenhouse gas emissions from existing natural gas power plants, which is expected to arrive in December. Read more about that rule here.