Regulatory Reform: A Few (Not So) Easy Pieces

Library of Law and Liberty discusses midnight regulations from the Obama administration with Wayne Crews. 

Yes: you can dismiss REFORM as starry-eyed. It assumes (I think) that—as Dan Henninger has put it in a splendid column—we will have a “public” Trump administration, consisting of tweets for the deplorables (talk Putin up and Lockheed Martin down); and a “private” Trump administration that is serious about getting stuff done, including things that never occurred to the President’s base. Too, REFORM assumes that Congress will want to get involved. DeMuth notes that Congress is categorically unwilling to revisit and revamp big statutes, such as the Clean Air Act. There’s a real question, though, whether Congress is still open to more “surgical,” REFORM-style interventions. For example, under the existing Congressional Review Act, Congress could with a single vote wipe out some 240 “midnight regulations” issued by the Obama administration since May 2016, plus—as the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Wayne Crews explains–a ton of administrative “guidances.” Not gonna happen: our Solons will overturn five Mickey-Mouse regs, max. Voting on the rest would distract GOP legislators from their solemn duty to yap about a run-away “administrative state.” 

Read the full article at Library of Law and Liberty.