Trump Gives SCOTUS a Chance to Make ‘Independent’ Agencies Accountable Again

The Trump administration is targeting court interpretations that have stripped the president of full control over personnel, and policy, within federal agencies.

The Trump administration is restructuring agencies, axing asinine programs, and deregulating at breakneck pace in a bid to deconstruct an administrative state that has for generations operated as an unaccountable and arguably unconstitutional fourth branch of government. In its effort to jettison bureaucrats likely to resist the Trump agenda, the administration has struck at perhaps the administrative state’s most dubious manifestation — so-called “independent” agencies — with Trump’s firing of the board member who had been serving as acting head of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) poised to bring the confrontation to a head.

‘Independent’ Agencies Mean Insubordinate Agencies

Progressives birthed the administrative state pursuant to their view that government management was a science to be conducted by purportedly apolitical technocrats with specialized knowledge — the Constitution and its separation of powers be damned. Independent agencies can be seen as perhaps their ultimate Frankenstein’s monster.

Like other agencies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and NLRB often exert outsize control over Americans’ lives and finances by issuing consequential rules and regulations.

But unlike their peers, these “independent” bureaucracies often make such decisions without presidential oversight or control. Further, while presidents appoint and senators confirm those who lead these bureaucracies, members or commissioners often serve staggered terms or terms outlasting any one administration. By law, the president’s power to dismiss agency leaders is circumscribed. The commander-in-chief may only fire them for cause — hence their “independence.” […]

— Read More: thefederalist.com