Stop Corporate Capture Act (SCCA)
OUR POSITION: CSS supports the bill and urges lawmakers to vote for it.
To tackle the pressing challenges we face as a nation – including the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, and racial injustice – we need a robust, responsive, and inclusive federal regulatory system. We do not have such a regulatory system today.
After decades of neglect and underinvestment, our regulatory system is rife with delay, unbridled corporate influence, inadequate transparency, and weak public accountability. It also had failed to keep up with innovation and technological advances, and must do more to properly account for social justice and equity impacts.
The Stop Corporate Capture Act offers a comprehensive blueprint for modernizing, improving, and strengthening the regulatory system to protect the public more effectively. It would level the playing field for all members of the public to have their views accounted for in regulatory decisions that affect them, promote scientific integrity, and restore our government’s ability to deliver results for workers, consumers, public health, and the environment.
The bill would bring transparency to the “black box” of the White House regulatory review process, which has become a focal point for corporate lobbying. It would accomplish this by requiring disclosure of changes and the sources of those changes to draft rules during that process. Furthermore, the bill would make it a federal crime for corporations to submit false information in order to influence regulators during the rulemaking process and would require anyone submitting scientific or other technical research to agencies during the rulemaking process to disclose any potential conflicts of interest.
The bill also would create an Office of the Public Advocate, charged with promoting agencies’ public engagement and helping the public participate more effectively in regulatory proceedings, especially people from marginalized communities. The Office of the Public Advocate would research the social equity impacts of the regulatory process and perform social equity assessments of pending rules when requested by the public. The bill also would strengthen agency procedures for notifying the public, particularly members of structurally marginalized communities and non-English speakers, about pending rulemakings.
Finally, the Stop Corporate Capture Act would codify Chevron deference, the long-standing principle that prevents judges from allowing their political preferences to influence their decisions in cases involving regulations. The bill would require courts to defer to agencies that Congress empowered to protect the public. In addition, the bill would bar the White House from unreasonably delaying essential safeguards by empowering agencies to resume work if the regulatory review process fails to conclude after 60 days. Importantly, the bill would authorize agencies to quickly reinstate any rules that were rescinded through the Congressional Review Act.
Congress must pass the Stop Corporate Capture Act to enact these critical and long overdue reforms to our nation’s regulatory process, so that it works for the public interest.
CSS Resources
Preserving Scientific Integrity with the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
Ensuring Strong Labor Protections with the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
Regulation and Public Health: How the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507) Can Strengthen Health Rights
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
Protecting Democracy with the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
Protecting Consumer Safeguards with the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
Preserving Climate Action Tools with the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
Protecting Civil Rights with the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Fact Sheet: March 7, 2024
House Judiciary Members Should Support Bill to End Regulatory Capture
Press Release: November 9, 2023
CSS Urges Consideration of the Stop Corporate Capture Act (H.R. 1507)
Letter to Members: November 9, 2023
House GOP Has It Backwards: Regulatory Process Needs Less Corporate Capture, Not More Congressional Dysfunction
Press Release: March 10, 2023
CSS Backs the Stop Corporate Capture Act
Letter to Members: March 9, 2023
CSS Supports the Stop Corporate Capture Act
Letter to Members: December 2, 2022
OIRA, Jayapal, Coalition Leaders Lay the Groundwork for Progressive Regulatory Reform
Press Conference: May 31, 2022
CSS Backs House Judiciary Hearing, Legislation to Strengthen the Regulatory Process
Letter to Members: December 1, 2021
Member Resources
The Stop Corporate Capture Act as Explained by the Cast of HBO’s Succession
Public Citizen Blog: May 24, 2023
A Tale of Two Bills: The Radical REINS Act vs. the Groundbreaking Stop Corporate Capture Act
Public Citizen Blog: March 22, 2023
Center Mounts Counteroffensive to Anti-Reg Efforts at U.S. House Hearing
Center for Progressive Reform Blog: March 13, 2023
Biden’s New Open Government Plan Lays Out a Progressive Regulatory Reform Agenda
Center for Progressive Reform Blog: January 12, 2023
Supporters of Strong Regulations Applaud Jayapal’s Stop Corporate Capture Act
Public Citizen Blog: October 28, 2022
New Poll Finds Strong Bipartisan Support for Building a Modernized, People-Centered Regulatory System
Center for Progressive Reform Press Release: June 28, 2022
A Blueprint for “Regulatory Democracy”: Empowering the Public in the Design and Implementation of New Safeguards
Center for Progressive Reform Report: June 27, 2022
Bill to End Corporate Capture of the Regulatory Process Gains Support
Public Citizen Newsletter Story: March 1, 2022
How to End Corporate Capture of the Regulatory Process
Public Citizen Op-Ed in The Hill: February 9, 2022
Regulatory Government Is Democratic Government
Center for Progressive Reform Op-Ed in Washington Monthly: February 5, 2022
Stop Corporate Capture Act Would Reform the Way Agencies Develop Key Public Protections
Center for Progressive Reform Press Release: December 1, 2021
Stop Corporate Capture Act Would Repair Our System of Public Protections
Public Citizen Press Release: December 1, 2021
House Progressives Debut Regulatory Reform Bill
Public Citizen Fact Sheet: December 1, 2021
Additional Resources
Pramila Jayapal Talks Economic Justice, Immigration Policy, and How to Stop Corporate Capture of the Economy
National Community Reinvestment Coalition Video: March 29, 2023
Jayapal Introduces Legislation to Curb the Influence of Corporations on Federal Agencies
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) Press Release: March 10, 2023
Limitations of Statute: The Conservative Supreme Court Is Poised to Dismantle the Regulatory State. Representative Pramila Jayapal Is the Lone Liberal Fighting Back.
Washington Monthly: June 20, 2022
H.R. 6107 – The Stop Corporate Capture Act
Congressional Progressive Caucus Bill Endorsement: December 17, 2021
The Administrative Procedure Act at 75: Ensuring the Rulemaking Process is Transparent, Accountable, and Effective
U.S. House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law Hearing: December 1, 2021