Independent Agencies

In 2022, Biden’s EPA opened an investigation into Louisiana’s Departments of Health (LDH) and Environmental Quality (LDQ) for failing to sufficiently protect residents of “Cancer Alley”—a strip of predominantly poor, Black communities suffering the dire effects of pollutants spewed from nearby petrochemical plants. To their credit, LDH and LDQ cooperated with the investigation and worked to craft more stringent standards and oversight protocols. Former Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, however, had other ideas. His office filed a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s (clear) authority to pursue its investigation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which allows the government to terminate federal funding for an agency found to have engaged in discrimination. Liz Murrill, Landry’s successor, is picking up the torch to carry on his malevolent agenda. 

The regulatory authority of the executive branch is under attack, and BigLaw firms stacked with revolvers are on the front lines leading the assault. I’ve previously written about former FTC Commissioner Christine Varney challenging the legitimacy of her former employer on behalf of pharma company Illumina. Lawyers at Latham & Watkins, a firm stacked with revolvers from executive branch agencies, are before the Supreme Court challenging the Chevron Doctrine, which defers to executive agencies’ interpretations when legislative statutes are unclear. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s ability to hold administrative proceedings hangs in the balance as we await the Supreme Court’s decision in SEC v. Jarkesy, where the Fifth Circuit’s ruling decimated the agency’s authority. In a new attack, revolvers on the labor/management relations team at Morgan Lewis & Bockius have their sights set on the plutocrats’ latest target: the National Labor Relations Board.

It’s no contest: The Biden administration’s labor policies have been dramatically better for ordinary Americans than those of his predecessor.

This summer saw an extremely slow rate of independent agency nominations coming from the White House, and witnessed also a similarly glacial pace of confirmations emerging from the Senate. While this trend got slightly better over the course of the fall, with the Senate finally making significant movement on the nominations already presented before it, few new nominations have emerged from the White House since July 18, 2023.  

Here’s a resolution for you: stop both sides-ing the deficit debate.

How the Grinchmaster General stole Christmas (and how to get it back).

We need a democratic process for appointing leaders of regional Fed banks.

RDP Senior Researcher Vishal Shankar joins the Ralph Nader Radio Hour to discuss Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s ongoing sabotage of the Postal Service.

These corporate shills are not “positive pragmatists”, no matter what the mainstream media tells you.

The Biden-majority Board is shielding DeJoy from accountability by silencing the public.

Revolving Door Project research reveals that right-wing elites in the Horatio Alger Association stand to benefit from a lawsuit attempting to destroy the CFPB. The group has close ties to Clarence Thomas.

Corporate predators and their Republican lackeys want our corrupt Supreme Court to make fraud legal again. Their greed could yield catastrophic economic damage.