Congress recently passed its annual “tax extender” legislation: the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (PATH Act) . Although the bulk of the PATH Act extends a variety of tax breaks, as Daniel Hemel notes over at the University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog the last few pages of the more-than-two-hundred-page bill attempt […]
Here’s a new Christmas experience: This year, I had to check with the federal government to make sure that “Santa’s” gift for my young son is legal. You see, I bought him a toy helicopter. It turns out that is now called a drone. And it also turns out that the FAA has begun regulating […]
The ABA’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice recently approved a report and resolution on improving the APA’s rulemaking provisions. The Section believes that while the basic chassis of the APA has been shown to be fundamentally sound, a variety of updates deserve serious consideration. The resolution proposes reforms to modernize the Act that […]
This is a foolish way to start a sentence, especially one published on the internet: “I’m no military historian, but ….” After all, there are lots of actual military historians out there, and they often have strong opinions on the subject. Even so, I’ll chance it. I’m no military historian, but it seems to me […]
Albeit a little later than usual, here is the November 2015 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. Before turning to this month’s top ten list, it’s worth noting—especially for adlaw geeks who are interested in environmental […]
Yesterday, the internet caught fire with a new study drawing attention on the prices that we pay for health-care services. Contrary to expectations in some quarters, low Medicare spending doesn’t correlate at all with low spending in the private market. Instead, variations in private spending are driven mainly by variations in prices—and prices, in turn, […]
There was an interesting development yesterday in the controversy over EPA’s aggressive social media campaign in support of its “Waters of the United States” rule. This rulemaking, conducted in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers, on was the subject of a panel at the recent ABA Adlaw Section Fall meeting. The Final Rule was […]
Following the lead of terrific roundtables/workshops in other fields of law (federal courts, civil procedure, etc.), I’m excited to announce the inaugural Administrative Law New Scholars Roundtable, which will take place next summer with a call for papers deadline in the spring. The first year’s host will be Michigan State. Here are the full details […]
A while back I mentioned a new project that Chris Walker and I are working on that applies administrative law principles to the Supreme Court’s new procedural rules for qualified immunity. Those who are interested in the topic should check out Nancy Leong’s (very generous) review in Jotwell, available here. (Quick preview: “The article should stand […]
This month the House of Representatives passed two resolutions under the Congressional Review Act (5 USC 801, et seq .) that disapproved of EPA’s recent rules for greenhouse gases from new and existing power plants. S.J. Resolutions 23 and 24. These two resolutions had already passed the Senate on November 17, 2015. The vote in […]
Everything I am about to say will be old hat for many readers. Even so, I like to provide public service announcements to law students. In that spirit, here is a valuable lesson: law — or at least the practice of law — is about math. In particular, law revolves around expected value, and by […]
Anyone who has done research on the U.S. Federal Reserve System and who has ventured into an old-fashioned library will notice something remarkable: the shelves in the HG 2500 section of the library veritably groan under the weight of conspiratorial tomes. These range from the absurd (about international cabals that control the Fed and the […]
In my prior post, I considered proposed regulations issued by the Treasury and the IRS regarding management fee waiver transactions. See Treasury Department & IRS, Disguised Payments for Services, 80 Fed. Reg. 43652 (July 23, 2015). To cater to the majority readership of the Yale Journal on Regulation, that post viewed the issue through the lens […]
This week the Senate Budget Committee held another hearing titled “Moving to a Stronger Economy Through Regulatory Budgeting”. The hearing included three witnesses, including Dr. John Graham, former OIRA Administrator and present Dean of Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs; Dr. Jerry Ellig, Senior Research Fellow at George Mason University; and Prof. Robert […]
As the Obama Administration moves into the final stretch of establishing a “Single Window” – an electronic portal through which traders can transmit data required by U.S. agencies for importing and exporting goods — it is worth discussing the pivotal role being played in the Single Window roll-out by retrospective review. The Administration’s retrospective review […]