Comer Calls on Federal Agencies to Rein in Regulatory Overreach in Wake of Supreme Court Decision - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is calling on several federal agencies to respect the limits placed on their regulatory authority following the Supreme Court’s decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. In letters to the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council, General Services Administration (GSA), and Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Chairman Comer requests information about their interpretations of their statutory authority to provide congressional oversight of compliance with the Supreme Court’s Loper Bright decision. He also joined other Committee chairs in sending letters to additional federal agencies.

“I write to call to your attention Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, a recent Supreme Court decision that precludes courts from deferring to agency interpretations of the statutes they administer,” wrote Chairman Comer. “Perhaps no administration has gone as far as President Biden’s to found sweeping and intrusive agency dictates on such questionable assertions of agency authority. The Biden Administration has promulgated far more major rules, imposing far more costs and paperwork burdens, than either of its recent predecessor administrations. Many of these rules—such as those promulgated to impose President Biden’s climate, energy and Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) agendas—have been based on aggressive interpretations of statutes enacted by Congress years and even decades ago, before many issues against which the Biden administration has sought to deploy them were even imagined.”

In its decision in Loper Bright, the Supreme Court overruled Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which had allowed courts to defer to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes. By allowing such deference, the Supreme Court in Chevron permitted courts to abdicate the judicial role granted exclusively to them through the Constitution and enabled the Executive Branch to usurp the legislative authority granted exclusively to Congress. Chevron unleashed decades of broad, costly, and invasive assertions of agency power, as agencies adopted expansive interpretations of ambiguous statutes, demanding courts defer to them.

“The expansive administrative state Chevron deference encouraged has undermined our system of government, overburdening our citizenry and threatening to overwhelm the founders’ system of checks and balances. Thankfully, the Court in Loper Bright has now corrected its Chevron error. This long-needed reversal should stem the vast tide of federal agencies’ overreach. Given the Biden administration’s track record, however, I am compelled to underscore the implications of Loper Bright and remind you of the limitations it has set on your authority,” continued Chairman Comer.

Read the letters Chairman Comer sent to federal agencies here:

Additionally, Chairman Comer joined other committee chairs in sending letters to the following federal agencies: