Professor Aaron Saiger was quoted in a Bloomberg BNA article about the future of the Chevron Deference, a doctrine that grants broad powers to government agencies to interpret statutes, under the Trump administration.
Yet in spite of its earlier support in the House from the party that will control both chambers of Congress and the White House in January, a proposal to kill the doctrine may struggle to get sufficient support to advance. Even if Senate Democrats didn’t filibuster any such attempt, it would be “extremely surprising” for Republicans to push through legislation like the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, Aaron Saiger, a professor at Fordham University’s School of Law, told Bloomberg BNA.
Doing so could meet GOP goals of enabling deregulation and potentially speeding up expected Trump administration efforts to reverse Obama administration actions. But it would also make it virtually “impossible” for Congress to write legislation that avoids statutory ambiguity but also anticipates future issues that will confront federal agencies, Saiger said.
Tossing out Chevron would also theoretically transfer at least some degree of authority in interpreting statutes from soon-to-be Republican-controlled executive agencies to the federal court system, which is majority Democratic after eight years of judicial appointments by a Democratic president. Farber and Saiger were skeptical President-elect Donald Trump will want to give Democratic-appointed judges more power than his own executive appointees.
