Returning Power to the People Act of 2024

Bill: 118-hr-8928
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Pfluger, August [R-TX-11]
Introduced: 2024-07-02
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Latest action: action_date: 2024-07-02
text: Referred to the Committee 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.

Summaries:

tv_txt: I 118th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 8928 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 Committee 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Returning Power to the People Act of 2024 . 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 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. 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 interpretation of the agency in a written, published memorandum supporting, reversing, or modifying such interpretation. 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. 5. Proper delegation No agency may issue a rule except to the extent that the authority to do so has been explicitly conferred by statute. To the extent that no such authority has been conferred, the agency shall assume that no such authority has been conferred. 6. Agency employee interpretation accountability Each agency shall evaluate officers and employees to identify any officer or employee who substantially and personally 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. 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. 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. 9. Access to independent courts Any determination by a Federal agency in a proceeding before that agency shall be subject to direct appeal to a Federal district court unless a statute explicitly specifies an administrative process that must be exhausted. 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. 11. Transparency in agency action Any final agency action may only rely on pre-published, 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 member 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. 12. Definitions In this Act— (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 deference 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 Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837.