This past week the Federal Circuit issued a significant decision* interpreting the Appointments Clause in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. In Helman v. Department of Veterans Affairs, the court held unconstitutional part of Congress’s new statutory scheme for expedited removal of senior executives in the Veterans Affairs Department (DVA). In the court’s view, […]
President Trump’s recent objections to spending money appropriated under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 are likely illegal. The 708-page act funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year and includes multiple specifications on how President Trump must spend money. In a signing statement, President Trump took issue with many of the provisions of the […]
I did not think the President’s decision to fire James Comey as FBI Director would have any connection with the D.C. Circuit (well, beyond the fact that Judge Silberman was quoted in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein’s letter). Yet just a few days later, I see that Chief Judge Garland is being pitched as a […]
Perhaps the most controversial provisions of the Portman-Heitkamp Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017 concern the availability of a public hearing for rules that have an economic impact of $100 million or more. The legislation would amend the Administrative Procedure Act to allow interested parties to petition for a public hearing and require the agency to include […]
Many of President Trump’s objections to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017 are likely unconstitutional. The 708-page act funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year and includes multiple restrictions on how President Trump can spend money, otherwise known as “riders.” In a signing statement, President Trump took issue with 76 of these […]
Getting information about federal spending–a key consideration in policymaking–just got a whole lot easier. The Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2014 (DATA Act) required federal agencies to use a standardized data format to report spending information. The goal was to make the information more readily available and useful, thereby improving transparency and oversight. The Office of […]
Here is the April 2017 edition of the most-downloaded recent papers (those announced in the last 60 days) from SSRN’s U.S. Administrative Law eJournal, which is edited by Bill Funk. Moral Commitments in Cost-Benefit Analysis by Eric Posner & Cass Sunstein [CJW Note: This is a great paper about quantifying moral values in cost-benefit analysis by eliciting […]
A little over two weeks ago, tens of thousands of people marched in cities around the country in support of efforts to combat climate change. Just a day before they marched, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order that undermines those efforts, granting a motion filed by the Trump […]
The ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice is hosting two events that may be of interest to our readers. First, on May 18th and 19th, the Section is presenting its 13th Annual Administrative Law Institute at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C. Day one of this event features a half-day program entitled “Rulemaking […]
In the challenge to EPA’s Clean Power Plan now pending in the D.C. Circuit, the Trump Administration has moved to the hold the case in abeyance, in anticipation of EPA’s upcoming departure from the Plan. Last Friday, April 28, the D.C. Circuit agreed to hold the case in abeyance for 60 days, but the court […]
This has been a surprisingly quiet week in the D.C. Circuit: Only one new case — and it is not especially noteworthy. Yet the D.C. Circuit’s term is winding down and there are still many cases to decide. I expected more opinions. (On the other hand, for what it is worth, last year, the first […]
To corral some last-minute votes, the House leadership has endorsed the Upton amendment to the American Health Care Act. The legislative text was released late yesterday, giving members no time to understand what it does before they vote on it today. That’s a shame: the amendment works at cross-purposes with other parts of the AHCA, […]
The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment to help it identify “regulations that may be appropriate for repeal, replacement, or modification” in response to President Trump’s executive order directing agencies to conduct such inquiries. The EPA notice made me wonder if we will see a similar notice from the immigration agencies seeking similar input. […]
In a recent paper, Eric Posner and I argue that cost-benefit analysis (CBA) should become a judicially-enforced legal requirement for regulatory agencies. That is, agencies that promulgate major rules should be required to perform CBA and regulate only if the benefits of the regulation would exceed the costs. Judges should enforce this requirement by scrutinizing […]
The House and Senate recently reached agreement on a comprehensive spending bill and expect to pass it soon. Regarding the IRS, the bill freezes the agency’s budget at $11.2 billion and thus does not, as some feared, make substantial cuts to its funding. Nonetheless, the IRS may face hardships, because its funding remains significantly below […]