Presidential control is better than the alternatives

Texas Law Review

Volumn 88, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 113-124

  Pierce Jr , Richard J ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 78649302275     PISSN: 00404411     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Note

References (64)

1. See 88 TEXAS L. REV. 441, 447 (2010) (introducing the thesis challenging "presidential administration [as] an effective strategy for advancing majoritarian preferences in agency rulemaking").
2. Id. at 448.
3. See id. at 449-65 (reviewing different models of popular representation and analyzing the historical and theoretical value of the presidential-control model.).
4. Id. at 492.
5. See id. at 497-98 (concluding that entrusting final rulemaking authority to agency administrators would promote the ideals of fiduciary administration more effectively than presidential administration).
6. Id. at 480-87.
7. Id. at 448-49.
8. Id. at 493.
9. See id. at 483 (discussing the use of more robust judicial review to support the fiduciary model of agency action or inaction).
10. Id. at 477.
11. Chevron U. S. A., Inc. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 842 (1984).
12. Criddle, supra note 1, at 499.
13. See Thomas J. Miles & Cass R. Sunstein, The Real World of Arbitrariness Review, 75 U. CHI. L. REV. 761, 762-63 (2008) (recounting controversy over the introduction of the hard-look doctrine, including the likely effect of "judicial biases distort[ing] the inquiry into reasonableness");
14. Richard L. Revesz, Environmental Regulation, Ideology, and the D. C. Circuit, 83 VA. L. REV. 1717, 1719 (1997) (listing among a study's conclusions that "ideology significantly influences judicial decision making on the D. C. Circuit").
15. Miles & Sunstein, supra note 13, at 767.
16. See id. at 814 (concluding that hard-look review is "hardened, or softened, by the political predilections of federal judges").
17. Chevron, 467 U. S. at 865.
18. Criddle, supra note 1, at 480, 482.
19. Id. at 483.
20. See Elimination of Certain Exemptions from the APA Rulemaking Requirements, 1 C. F. R. §305.69-8 (1974) (detailing §553 (a) (2) rules pertaining to "public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts").
21. A discussion on the cost and difficulty of issuing a major rule through the use of notice and comment subject to hard-look judicial review can be found in Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Seven Ways to Deossify Agency Rulemaking, 47 ADMIN. L. REV. 59, 60-67 (1995).
22. 5 U. S. C. § 553 (c) (2006).
23. Pierce, supra note 20, at 60-61 & n. 4 (summarizing the literature on ossification in agency rulemaking).
24. Id.
25. Id.
26. ENVTL. & ENERGY STUDY INST. & ENVTL. LAW INST., STATUTORY DEADLINES IN ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION: NECESSARY BUT NEED IMPROVEMENT (1985).
27. See Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Judicial Review of Agency Actions in a Period of Diminishing Agency Resources, 49 ADMIN. L. REV. 61, 65-66 (1997) (discussing budget cuts by Congress in 1996).
28. Id. at 65.
29. See SIDNEY SHAPIRO ET AL., CTR. FOR PROGRESSIVE REFORM, REGULATORY DYSFUNCTION: HOW INSUFFICIENT RESOURCES, OUTDATED LAWS, AND POLITICAL INTERFERENCE CRIPPLE THE 'PROTECTOR AGENCIES' 7 (2009), available at http://www.progressivereform.org/articles/RegDysfunction-906.pdf (noting that rising Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security costs, along with increased defense spending, have left the protector agencies "fighting over table scraps").
30. See Connor N. Raso, Note, Strategic or Sincere? Analyzing Agency Use of Guidance Documents, 119 YALE L. J. 782, 805-20 (2010) (providing an empirical analysis of the use of agency guidance documents compared to legislative rules).
31. See Criddle, supra note 1, at 483 (encouraging judicial review of agency inaction).
32. See Steven M. Davidoff & David Zaring, Regulation by Deal: The Government's Response to the Financial Crisis, 61 ADMIN. L. REV. 463, 468 (2009) (explaining that the techniques used in the financial crisis were a marked departure from the normal notice-and-comment form of rulemaking).
33. See Kelly Evans et al., Jobs Data Lift Recovery Hopes, WALL ST. J., Dec. 5, 2009, at A1 (noting that the unemployment rate dropped to 10% in November 2009 from a rate of 10.2% in October 2009).
34. Criddle, supra note 1, at 484-85.
35. David Brooks, Op-Ed., The Power Elite, N. Y. TIMES, Feb. 18, 2010, at A27.
36. See Criddle, supra note 1, at 481 (arguing that these exemptions are overinclusive and should be reformed).
37. See Chip Reid, Obama Reneges on Health Care Transparency, CBSNEWS. COM, Jan. 6, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/06/eveningnews/main6064298. shtml?tag=mncoljlstj1 (noting that while Obama promised to broadcast all health care reform negotiations on C-SPAN, he later called for closed-door meetings to draft an agreement between the House and Senate).
38. See id. (quoting a Republican House representative regarding the shift to closed-door meetings).
39. Criddle, supra note 1, at 486.
40. Id. at 501.
41. Id.
42. 657 F.2d 298 (D. C. Cir. 1981).
43. Criddle, supra note 1, at 498 (emphasis added).
44. Sierra Club, 657 F.2d at 384-85.
45. Id. at 384-91.
46. Id.
47. Id. at 396-410.
48. Id. at 400-02.
49. See generally JAMES PHILLIPS, THE HERITAGE FOUND., THE IRANIAN OIL CRISIS (1979), available at http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/1979/02/The- Iranian-Oil-Crisis.
50. Id.
51. Id.
52. Id.
53. Id.
54. Id.
55. Id.
56. See generally RORY MCILMOIL & EVAN HANSEN, DOWNSTREAM STRATEGIES, THE DECLINE OF CENTRAL APPALACHIAN COAL AND THE NEED FOR ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION (2010), available at http://www.downstreamstrategies.com/Documents/reports- publication/DownstreamStrategies-DeclineOfCentralAppalachianCoal-FINAL-1-19-10. pdf.
57. Susan Elizabeth Shank, Changes in Regional Employment Over the Last Decade, MONTHLY LAB. REV., Mar. 1985, at 17, 20.
58. See generally PHILLIPS, supra note 48;
59. MCILMOIL & HANSEN, supra note 55.
60. See John F. Stacks, Where the Polls Went Wrong, TIME, Dec. 1, 1980, at 21, available at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0, 9171, 924541-1, 00.html (discussing the situation leading up to the Reagan versus Carter election).
61. Id.
62. Id.
63. Id.
64. See generally Richard J. Pierce, Jr., What Factors Can an Agency Consider in Making a Decision?, 2009 MICH. ST. L. REV. 67.