A coalition of 19 conservative and libertarian groups sent a letter to congressional leaders Wednesday urging them to act after a major Supreme Court decision clawing back federal agency power.
The coalition, led by Americans for Prosperity, told lawmakers they have a “generational opportunity” to rein in the federal bureaucracy after the high court in June overturned Chevron deference, which for 40 years had compelled courts to defer to agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous statutes.
Overturning the doctrine marked a monumental victory for the conservative legal movement, and as President-elect Trump returns to the White House, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk have latched onto the decision in their ambitious plans to slash federal regulations as co-heads of the newly minted Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
In the new letter, the coalition proposed that Congress delegate less authority to agencies in future legislation, streamline the procedures that allow lawmakers to overturn federal regulations, increase agency oversight and hearings, and take various other steps.
The groups said the efforts are needed to “keep Congress one-step ahead of bureaucrats’ future attempts to regain lost influence and thwart government by the People.”
“[W]ith Chevron vanquished and a growing nationwide demand to dismantle the administrative state and its crippling regulatory barriers, we write to recommend prioritizing the actions below to build a strong foundation for Congress to meet the challenges of a post-Chevron landscape,” the groups wrote in the letter.
The letter was led by Americans for Prosperity, a conservative political advocacy group funded by Charles Koch, the chairman of Koch Industries, who has helped spearhead major regulatory challenges. The 18 co-signers included Americans for Tax Reform, Heritage Action, Club for Growth, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute.
Many of the groups backed the effort at the Supreme Court earlier this year that toppled Chevron deference.
The 1984 ruling had been cited in thousands of lower court decisions upholding regulations that affect wide aspects of American life, becoming a bedrock of modern administrative law. Anti-regulatory interests long looked to demolish the precedent as part of a broader attack on the “administrative state,” and found success with the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority.
The justices ruled along ideological lines that courts must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority, removing the deference that had long given the federal bureaucracy sweeping power.
