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The Economy

Anthony Campau, EPIC Fellow and former OIRA Chief of Staff on the Loper Bright and Relentless Decisions

The Economy Policy Rapid Response BlogJune 28, 2024 By Anthony Campau

Introduction

Now it is time for Congress to assert its rightful place as the lawmaking body, crafting clear instructions and firm guard rails for regulators.

Anthony Campau, EPIC Fellow and former OIRA Chief of Staff, released the following statement on the Loper Bright and Relentless decisions:

After more than four decades of largely deferring to regulators on key questions of statutory interpretation, today the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that courts – not regulators – should say whether and to what extent Congress has given agencies the power to regulate. In its Loper Bright and Relentless decisions, released just moments ago, the Supreme Court announced a significant rollback of Chevron deference, the judicial habit of deferring to agency interpretations of ambiguities in federal statutes.  That longtime practice of deference has emboldened agencies to expand the reach of their authority beyond what Congress has given them, contributing to the massive growth and power of the regulatory state. Today the Court addressed this long-running challenge.

As we said last month in The Hill, the message for Congress is already clear: "Where it has delegated lawmaking power to the agencies, which in turn is used to write regulations, Congress can articulate clear limits on the use of that power. It can narrow the provision of rulemaking authority on the books. It can address overregulation by narrowing and particularizing the grants of rulemaking authority Congress has previously given to agencies. This task may not be quick or easy, but it is extremely important." 

Today's decisions help to restore the constitutional balance of power between Congress and the President. Now it is time for Congress to assert its rightful place as the lawmaking body, crafting clear instructions and firm guard rails for regulators. 

Additional Resources

Anthony Campau in The Hill: A message for Congress in the Supreme Court’s reconsideration of Chevron deference.

For more background on federal rules generally, see: EPIC Explainer: What is a Rule?

For a quick overview of the regulatory development process, see: The Regulatory Development Process.

Author

Anthony P. Campau

Anthony P. Campau

Fellow in Regulatory Modernization and Alignment

Anthony P. Campau is a Fellow in Regulatory Modernization and Alignment at the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) in Washington, DC. Campau previously served as Chief of Staff and Counselor for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which oversees the development of regulatory and information policy across the Executive Branch of the U.S. federal government. In that capacity, he worked with the senior political and career leadership of federal departments and agencies on the development of new regulations, information collections, and key guidance. He helped to lead interagency collaborations on a range of technical regulatory matters, contributed to international regulatory cooperation activities, and helped to strengthen and enforce federal information policy standards. Having also served as a Core Member of the Regulatory Reform Team on the 2016 Presidential Transition Team and as a member of the Beachhead Team at OMB/OIRA, Campau also played an early role in helping to develop and implement significant regulatory process and policy reforms across the U.S. federal government. Campau clerked for Judge Neomi Rao of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and was a regulatory policy fellow at the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. He has testified before Congress on regulatory issues, represented the U.S. federal government in numerous international regulatory cooperation initiatives, published and spoken widely on regulatory topics, and contributed to collaborative works such as the Mandate for Leadership . Campau earned a J.D. and an LL.M. in securities and financial regulation from Georgetown University Law Center and a B.A. in history from Southeastern University.

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