Keystone Today

House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Glenn "GT" Thompson (PA-15) has joined other Committee Chairs in calling for a review of agency regulations following the Supreme Court's decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.

The letters, including those sent by Chairman Thompson to the United States Department of Agriculture and United States Forest Service, underscore concerns regarding the implications of the ruling. The key excerpts are as follows:

"The Supreme Court recently issued a decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which precludes courts from deferring to agency interpretations of the statutes they administer. In its decision, the Court overruled Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984), which had allowed courts to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. By allowing such deference, the Court in Chevron upset the Founders’ careful separation of powers, permitting courts to abdicate the judicial role granted exclusively to them through Article III of the Constitution and enabling the Executive to usurp the legislative authority granted exclusively to Congress through Article I."

Thompson and his colleagues argue that "Chevron unleashed decades of successively broader, more costly, and more invasive assertions of agency power over citizens’ lives, liberty, and property," with agencies adopting expansive interpretations of ambiguous statutes.

They also assert that "perhaps no administration has gone as far as President Biden’s" in using questionable assertions of agency authority to implement broad and intrusive regulations. They highlight that many rules under President Biden's administration have been based on aggressive interpretations of long-standing statutes.

"The expansive administrative state encouraged by Chevron deference has undermined our system of government," they claim. The letter concludes by emphasizing their commitment to exercising investigative and legislative powers to ensure adherence to the limitations set by the Loper Bright decision.

"As the committees of jurisdiction overseeing your agency," they write, "we assure you we will exercise our robust investigative and legislative powers not only to reassert forcefully our Article I responsibilities but also to ensure the Biden administration respects the limits placed on its authority by the Court’s Loper Bright decision."