Senators Should Support Bill to Codify Chevron Deference, Modernize Rulemaking

For Immediate Release: July 23, 2024
Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senators should support the Stop Corporate Capture Act, introduced today by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards said. More than 70 groups in the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards are calling on senators to endorse the bill.

The House version of the bill (H.R. 1507), introduced by U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) in March 2023, already has 74 cosponsors.

“The Stop Corporate Capture Act is a comprehensive blueprint for modernizing, improving, and strengthening the regulatory system to better protect the public,” said Rachel Weintraub, executive director of the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards. “The bill would restore Chevron deference, ensuring that courts defer to agencies as long as their interpretation of an ambiguous statute is reasonable. The bill would enhance our government’s ability to deliver results for workers, consumers, public health, and our environment. And it would level the playing field so that ordinary people – not just big corporations – can weigh in on potential rules that affect them.”

Specifically, the bill would…

Codify Chevron deference, the recently overturned legal principle that courts must defer to agencies as long as their interpretation of statutory ambiguity is reasonable;
Require disclosure of changes and the sources of changes made to draft rules during the White House regulatory review process;
Bar the White House from unreasonably delaying essential safeguards;
Make it a crime for corporations to submit false information to regulators;
Require anyone submitting scientific or technical research to disclose potential conflicts of interest;
Create an Office of the Public Advocate charged with increasing public participation in rulemaking, which will give communities that benefit most from new regulatory protections a much stronger voice in the process, including those that speak languages other than English; and
Authorize agencies to quickly reinstate rules rescinded through the Congressional Review Act.

“To tackle today’s most pressing challenges – including the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, and racial injustice – we need a robust, responsive, and inclusive federal regulatory system that works for the public interest,” Weintraub added.

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