Recent News

The regulatory developments of 2025 underscore how overregulation and unchecked agency authority tend to raise costs, slow growth, and limit opportunity, while strong procedural guardrails and regulatory reforms can deliver better outcomes. As regulatory debates continue through 2026, policymakers and advocates should focus on reforms that promote accountability, streamline permitting, expand competition, lower costs, and enable innovation.

With data now available showing the value of independent agencies following the processes set forth in E.O. 12866, there is no doubt that consistency across the government in regulatory procedures and analysis only improves certainty and transparency of the process. It is now time for Congress to codify E.O. 12866 and require independent regulatory agencies to conduct robust cost-benefit analyses of their significant rules and subject their analysis to third-party review through OIRA, just as Executive agencies have for decades.  

Today, Americans for Prosperity Foundation filed a comment on the EPA’s and Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal to update regulations defining “waters of the United States”—which set forth the agencies’ understanding of their jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (CWA).

When the Supreme Court decided Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, overturning Chevron deference, it clarified the principle that federal agencies cannot extend their authority beyond what has been clearly authorized by Congress. In declaring that “statutes . . . have a single, best meaning,” the Court made clear that agencies must follow the law as written and not their policy preferences.

A judge’s job is to faithfully interpret the laws as written and not impose judicial policy preferences. To do that successfully, every judge must have the aptitude and character commensurate with judging — that means every judge should combine education, experience, intellectual rigor, understanding of the law, appropriate temperament, compassion, and commitment to justice. Anyone whose job is to select a judge, whether elected official, board member, or voter, should reject judges who do not meet these basic standards.