I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8928 
To provide for certain reforms pertaining to Chevron deference. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 2, 2024 
Mr. PFLUGER (for himself, Mr. GUTHRIE, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr. ALFORD, Mr. 
GRIFFITH, Mr. ZINKE, Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia, Mr. FRY, and Mr. 
NEWHOUSE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on Oversight 
and Accountability, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for certain reforms pertaining to Chevron 
deference. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Returning Power to 
the People Act of 2024’’. 
SEC. 2. GAO REPORT ON CHEVRON CASES. 
Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 
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shall submit to Congress a report identifying matters 
wherein Chevron deference was implicated. The report 
shall compile a list of the statutes and rules implicated 
in each such matter that are in effect as of the date of 
the report. The analysis will consider and report on the 
private party interests that were or would be impacted as 
a result of the court according such deference. 
SEC. 3. AGENCY PREDICTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY. 
Each Federal agency shall conduct a review of any 
matter to which the agency was a party since the decision 
was issued in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources 
Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 wherein the agency 
was accorded Chevron deference. The agency shall identify 
the statute or rule implicated, the interpretation of the 
agency, and what alternative interpretations were asserted 
by another party. The agency shall reassess the interpreta-
tion of the agency in a written, published memorandum 
supporting, reversing, or modifying such interpretation. 
SEC. 4. LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD. 
In any civil action before a Federal court, the court 
may not show greater deference to the interpretation of 
a statute by one party to the civil action. Instead, the 
court shall issue its own interpretation pursuant to the 
principles of statutory interpretation. 
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SEC. 5. PROPER DELEGATION. 
No agency may issue a rule except to the extent that 
the authority to do so has been explicitly conferred by stat-
ute. To the extent that no such authority has been con-
ferred, the agency shall assume that no such authority has 
been conferred. 
SEC. 6. AGENCY EMPLOYEE INTERPRETATION ACCOUNT-
ABILITY. 
Each agency shall evaluate officers and employees to 
identify any officer or employee who substantially and per-
sonally contributes to the interpretation of a statute or 
rule. Any such officer or employee shall be considered to 
be exercising duties reserved for members of the excepted 
service. 
SEC. 7. OVERCRIMINALIZATION REDUCTION. 
No agency may make a rule if any provision of law 
imposes a criminal penalty for an offense and an element 
of such offense involves a violation of such rule unless the 
rule also includes a specified mens rea. In the case of any 
such rule in effect as of the date of enactment of this Act, 
no person may be prosecuted for such an offense. 
SEC. 8. CONGRESSIONAL DIRECTION IN CIVIL PENALTIES. 
No agency may collect any administrative fine or civil 
monetary penalty for the violation of a rule, except to the 
extent that the statute or the rule provides for a mens 
rea standard for any violation thereof. 
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SEC. 9. ACCESS TO INDEPENDENT COURTS. 
Any determination by a Federal agency in a pro-
ceeding before that agency shall be subject to direct appeal 
to a Federal district court unless a statute explicitly speci-
fies an administrative process that must be exhausted. 
SEC. 10. FAIRNESS IN ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUDICATION. 
In the case of any proceeding before an agency, if 
an appeal may not be taken to a Federal district court 
or a Federal Court of Appeals until the final exhaustion 
of all administrative remedies, any appeal thereafter shall 
be reviewed de novo and the record of proceedings before 
the agency shall, at any party’s request, be supplemented 
or set aside for a trial de novo. 
SEC. 11. TRANSPARENCY IN AGENCY ACTION. 
Any final agency action may only rely on pre-pub-
lished, publicly available and accessible materials in the 
form of rules, agency guidance, memorandum or other 
types of agency policy documents. If a court determines 
that an agency action is not clear and accessible to a mem-
ber of the general public on a website or similar database 
prior to the decision being made, the agency action relying 
on such inaccessible policy guidance shall be considered 
void. 
SEC. 12. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act— 
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(1) terms used have the meanings given such 
terms in section 551 of title 5, United States Code; 
(2) the term ‘‘matter’’ means a case before a 
Federal court, a proceeding before an agency, or an 
agency decision; and 
(3) the term ‘‘Chevron deference’’ means def-
erence accorded by a court to the interpretation of 
a Federal statute by a Federal agency pursuant to 
the decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Re-
sources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837. 
Æ 
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