The extreme right-wing Supreme Court has dismantled a 40-year-old doctrine and, in a stunning blow to the American people, reversed longstanding legal precedent.
The reversal of several landmark decisions, from Roe v. Wade to Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, has made Americans less safe. We all know that overruling Roe restricts reproductive freedom in America. However, what many Americans do not realize is that this decision will also have life-threatening implications. In one fell swoop, the Supreme Court sidelined subject matter experts at federal agencies who had been tasked with interpreting and implementing vague statutes.
Chevron stood for the common-sense proposition that Congress and the executive branch should be the primary policymakers in government since they are accountable to the people through the ballot box. In reversing Chevron, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for Congress to exercise its policymaking power, and the American people will suffer as a result. It has hindered Congress’s ability to make policy by cutting out technical experts at federal agencies without building capacity for Congress to bring those experts in-house. Without a huge increase in resources for the legislative branch, it will be strictly left to the courts, who, while well versed in law and our constitution, are not experts in aerospace engineering, artificial intelligence or food science.
To be crystal clear: this decision did not empower Congress, nor did it empower the American people. This decision was a gift to the special interests, mega corporations and billionaires.
Large corporations will bend over backward to find cases to undo existing regulations that ensure the food and water we give our children are free of toxins and to protect the air we breathe from pollution. Now, instead of an environmental toxicologist or other professionals making these determinations, it will be the courts. The American people should ask themselves who they want crafting regulations on airplane manufacturing — aeronautical engineers or judges adjudicating cases brought by entities whose only purpose is to maximize profits.
Now, more than ever, Congress must thoughtfully and adequately invest in it itself and build institutional capacity. My Republican colleagues need to get serious about preparing us for a post-Chevron existence; we need to approve an adequate legislative branch appropriations bill.
Well before the court’s decision, my colleague Congressman Derek Kilmer, as chairman of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, clearly documented Congress’s desperate need for an infusion of resources, capacity and expertise. Unfortunately, House Republicans, in their latest legislative embarrassment, failed to pass their own legislative branch appropriations bill because they refused to work in a bipartisan manner to prioritize our constituents and this institution.
The clock is ticking, and this investment is needed now more than ever.
Recent improvements made during Democratic control of the House of Representatives to recruit and retain skilled staff, spearheaded by the Committee on House Administration in the 116th and 117th Congresses, include but are not limited to: imposing the first ever minimum pay rate for full-time House staff; decoupling member pay and staff pay, which allowed us to raise the staff pay cap and retain subject matter experts and policy drafters; expanding benefits like the Student Loan Repayment Program; and increasing resources for the Congressional Staff Academy and the Chief Administrative Officer Coach program.
To meet this moment, we must be clear-eyed about how significant an investment is required. Experts have already weighed in on the decision’s impact on Congress and its legislative ability, as well as how this will impact environmental policy regulations, heath care policy, technology, prescription drug costs and manufacturing, just to name a few.
This decision also plays into the extremist Republicans’ playbook. If Republicans are successful this November, they will unleash the Trump-aligned Project 2025 to the detriment of the American people. Project 2025 already outlines the mass firing of civil servants — the people who work every day to ensure our produce is not rotting and our milk is not sour. Enacting Project 2025 will further threaten the government’s expertise to address the most pressing issues of our time.
The end of Chevron deference and plan to put through Trump and the conservatives’ extreme Project 2025 are intertwined. This could very well be the beginning of the end of the institutions we rely on to keep us safe — and the American system of government as we know it.
Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.) is the ranking member of the United States House Committee on House Administration, which has jurisdiction over laws related to federal elections.