Republicans have tried to use the reconciliation process to change/repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Despite voting on several proposals, Republicans have not been able to get 50 votes to pass any legislation under reconciliation. The Senate parliamentarian recently declared that at the end of the fiscal year, September 30, the reconciliation instructions Republicans could […]
Author Archives: Guest Blogger
Why Trump’s Renewed Push for Healthcare Reform Could Lead to Vastly Different CBO Estimates, by Sam Wice
Future Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates of healthcare legislation, even identical legislation to what CBO has already reviewed, may be vastly different because of the peculiarities of the reconciliation process. Despite the recent failure of healthcare legislation, President Trump has advocated for Republicans to pass a healthcare bill to replace the Affordable Care Act. However, […]
Who is Chevron for?, by Anya Bernstein
In June, the D.C. Circuit vacated part of an FCC order regulating inmate phone rates. The majority opinion focused on the FCC’s statutory jurisdiction over intra-state phone provision. But as Aaron Nielson noted on this blog, administrative law watchers may be interested in the opinion for its odd treatment of Chevron deference. As I suggest […]
Why the Bank Examination Privilege Is Breaking Down, by Eric B. Epstein
Federal oversight of the banking industry generally takes place through bank examinations. A bank examination is a confidential, non-public dialogue between a regulator and a bank about the bank’s policies and practices. During this dialogue, bank examiners and banks depend on a federal rule known as the bank examination privilege. However, this rule is beginning […]
The Evolution of Benefit-Cost Analysis into Federal Rulemaking, by Jim Tozzi
Nearly fifty years ago Alan Schmid, a visiting professor working at the Office of the Secretary of the Army, made a game changing announcement to his colleagues in the Systems Analysis Group housed in the Pentagon. Schmid argued that the then use of benefit-cost analysis, which was applied to capital expenditure projects such as dams […]
The Emoluments Clauses Lawsuits’s Weak Link: The Official Capacity Issue, by Seth Barrett Tillman
The conclusion of briefing in Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (“CREW”) v. Donald J. Trump, in his official capacity as President of the United States of America, Civ. A. No. 1:17-cv-00458 (Southern District of New York, filed January 23, 2017), the first filed of three Foreign Emoluments Clause cases, is now almost in […]
Using Congressional Rules to Shift the Balance of Power, by Aneil Kovvali
Last week, the president signed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act. Among other things, the act codifies sanctions against Russia into statutory law and provides that the president must navigate a congressional review process before waiving or terminating those sanctions. In an accompanying signing statement, the president attacked the congressional review provision as unconstitutional, […]
The Presidential Advisory Committee on Electoral Integrity and Personally Identifiable Information, by Bernard W. Bell
The Presidential Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity (“the PACEI” or “the Commission”), created by President Trump to study state voter registration and voting procedures used in federal elections, Executive Order No. 13,799, 82 Fed. Reg. 22,389 (May 11, 2017), has begun its work in controversy and litigation. This post focuses on the Commission’s power to […]
For Tax Reform Estimates, Don’t Look to CBO, Look to JCT, by Sam Wice
The shift in focus from healthcare to tax reform will mean that the little known Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) will soon play a starring role. During discussions about healthcare reform, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) played an important role in estimating how many people would be insured under competing Republican proposals. With the shift […]
The Obstruction Statute as Structural Law, by Aneil Kovvali
In a recent working paper and op-ed, Professors Daniel Hemel and Eric Posner argue that the federal statute banning obstruction of justice applies to the president, and that the president would violate the statute if he intervened in an investigation to advance his personal interests. Hemel and Posner suggest that this can be reconciled with […]