“Washington is steadily chipping away at what have long been called independent agencies,” declares American Enterprise Institute nonresident senior fellow Mark Jamison, a senior lecturer in the University of Florida Warrington College of Business.
Members of Congress sometimes direct agency decisions or tell agency leaders, “You belong to us. Remember that and you’ll be alright,” he laments. Jamison also points to how courts are revisiting the boundaries of presidential control, as is President Trump. He adds that some agency leaders now openly question whether their independence exists at all, despite what the statutes say.
That raises three practical questions for Jamison: What is regulatory independence? Does it matter? And if it weakens, what else should change?
