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Big Government and the Administrative State
50 posts, newest first (page 1 of 3).
Why a Democratic Congress Cannot Easily Undo a President's DeregulationA Congress controlled by the other party faces the veto, the two-thirds override and the courts' review of rescissions. Here is how the machinery works. Congress Changes Hands, but Citizens Can Still Petition to Cut Red TapeDemocrats take both chambers in January 2027, but five tools in existing law let any citizen push an agency to cut or change a rule. From Taft to Hoover to Grace to Gore, a Century of Commissions on WastePresidents of both parties have studied federal waste since 1910. The record shows what got adopted, what was ignored, and why reform sticks or fails. A Democratic Senator Spent Thirteen Years Handing Out Awards for WasteWilliam Proxmire's Golden Fleece Award, the lawsuit that limited it, and the conservative senator who carried the idea forward. Sue and Settle, the Friendly Lawsuit That Writes Rules Without You in the RoomHow a lawsuit between an advocacy group and an agency that agree can set the agency's rulemaking agenda, and what the 2017 reforms did about it. Move the Agencies Out of Washington, and Watch Who ComplainsRelocating agency headquarters closer to the people they regulate changes bureaucratic culture, and the backlash tells you why. America's Richest Counties Ring the Capital, and That Is No AccidentSuburbs around Washington top the national income charts year after year. Follow the federal money to see who profits when government grows. Madison Called It the Very Definition of Tyranny, and Agencies Hold All ThreeFederalist 47 defines tyranny as all three powers in the same hands. Read it passage by passage, then see which federal agencies hold all three. INS v. Chadha Killed the Legislative Veto and Left Congress Fewer ToolsA student's deportation case ended the one-house veto in 1983 and showed why lawmaking must pass both chambers and reach the President's desk. The Acting Officials Who Run Agencies Without the Senate's ConsentWho may run a federal agency while its top job sits empty? The Appointments Clause, the Vacancies Act and two Supreme Court cases answer. Departments, Commissions, Corporations and Who Really Controls Each OneFederal agencies come in different legal shapes, and the shape decides whether the elected President can direct them. A table of who answers for each. How to File a FOIA Request and Get a Federal Agency to Answer YouA step-by-step playbook for the Freedom of Information Act: finding the office, writing a narrow request, fees, deadlines, exemptions, appeals and court. That Little Number on a Federal Form Can Protect You From a PenaltyThe OMB control number printed on federal forms exists because of the Paperwork Reduction Act, and its public protection provision has real force and limits. A Fisherman, Some Undersized Grouper and the Problem of Regulatory CrimeA fisherman faced up to twenty years over fish thrown overboard, and the case shows how federal crime outran the statute book and the guilty mind. SEC v. Jarkesy Put the Jury Back Between Citizens and Agency CourtsThe 2024 Supreme Court case holding that the Seventh Amendment guarantees a jury when the SEC seeks civil fraud penalties, and what follows. The Small White House Office That Reads Every Major Rule Before You DoHow OIRA, created in 1980, reviews major federal rules, why both parties kept it, and why cost-benefit analysis is a conservative tool worth defending. Roscoe Pound Warned the Bar About Administrative Absolutism in 1938The Harvard dean and former progressive reformer who became the New Deal agencies' sharpest critic, and how his warning shaped the APA that governs them. Seven Things Everyone Believes About the Federal Bureaucracy That Aren't SoSeven popular beliefs about Washington's bureaucracy, tested against the record, and why correcting them makes the conservative case stronger. Imagine Congress Passed One Last Law Handing All Its Power to the ExpertsA labelled thought experiment in which Congress retires, then the Constitution, Locke, Federalist 62 and the nondelegation cases show how close we are. A Thought Experiment on Requiring a Permit to Apply for a PermitA satirical Office of Pre-Application Review shows where permitting logic ends, then the real NEPA, Paperwork Reduction Act and APA steps are laid out plainly. Conservatives Are Not Against Government, We Are Against Rule by BureauThe conservative quarrel is with unaccountable administration, not government. Keeping government and bureaucracy distinct makes the argument stronger. Big Companies Can Afford Regulation, Which Is Why Some of Them Ask for MoreCompliance costs are largely fixed, so they fall hardest on small firms and protect incumbents. Stigler, Yandle and the Regulatory Flexibility Act explain why. When Dentists Policed Teeth Whitening, the Supreme Court Said NoA licensing board run by working dentists shut out teeth-whiteners, and in 2015 the Supreme Court held it was not above antitrust law without state supervision. A Two-Page Law From 1970 Now Produces Studies Longer Than a NovelNEPA began as a short procedural statute. Decades of lawsuits turned its impact statement into a years-long obstacle for roads, power lines and mines.
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