McKenzie Romero, Utah News Dispatch

With a Supreme Court decision on the horizon that could tip the regulatory scale away from federal agencies and toward Congress, Utah’s U.S. House representatives say there is an opportunity to reclaim power after 40 years of overreach, release a stranglehold on businesses and save Americans some money.

The added consequence, they noted, is that more careful lawmaking will be needed once Congress can no longer rely on agencies to fill in the blanks on vague legislation.

Utah’s all-Republican House delegation sat down with industry leaders at Zions Bank headquarters in Salt Lake City on Thursday in a roundtable discussion focused on the consequences of overregulation. The event also marked the debut of the Balancing Act Project, a Washington-based nonprofit advocating for regulatory accountability, which chose business-friendly Utah for its inaugural event.

From a highway in southern Utah that remains hypothetical after 30 years to restrictions on federal land to a mandate for automakers to produce electric vehicles, the panel lamented the ways they say federal agencies have overstepped.

It’s a result of a 1984 Supreme Court case that granted regulatory leeway to those agencies in the interest of having issue experts establish policy.

McKenzie Romero, Utah News Dispatch

Utah’s delegation painted the decision, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, that established what came to be known as the principle of “Chevron deference,” as a 40-year failed experiment. It now appears on the brink of being overturned, after conservative Supreme Court justices signaled they see problems with the practice as they heard arguments in January in a case that challenges the ruling.

Advocates arguing in favor of maintaining the Chevron doctrine said that without it, it will be more difficult for the federal government to enforce regulations related to the environment or other complex policy areas.

Congress has relied on the deference principle in order to pass bills, said Rep. Celeste Maloy, noting that it’s easier to get people on board with a broad concept and then let agencies develop the details after it’s passed.

“And then when agencies make decisions we don’t like, we blame them and fundraise off of it, which is also problematic,” Maloy said.

Without that option, “we’re going to have to do a lot better job of our jobs if Chevron gets overturned,” Maloy said. “People ask me all the time, is Congress ready for this? And the answer is we’re going to have to be ready.”

Rep. Blake Moore expressed his hope that in a post-Chevron world, Congress will do “the hard work” of developing legislation that can pass the 60-vote filibuster mark.

“The reality is, if you want anything signed into law, and if you want to actually take that power back from the executive branch, then you’ve got to find a way to be able to collaborate to get past that filibuster,” Moore said. “But if we are unwilling to do our job as members of Congress, and actually find a workable solution to all of these issues, then this will be a moot point.”

Maloy’s top example of regulatory roadblocks is the proposed Northern Corridor Highway that would connect areas of St. George, and has been batted back and forth between local transportation planners and federal agencies since the early 2000s due to environmental concerns. It has also faced stiff grassroots opposition.

And regulation that goes too far also ends up costing Americans money, the panelists said.

In response to a question about how business leaders can help push back against federal mandates, like those requiring automakers to produce electric vehicles, Maloy, a member of the House Small Business Committee, urged that they speak up.

“That’s the ray of sunshine, I guess, the fact that we can see that you’re getting choked to death, and even the Democrats agree with Republicans on the committee that we’ve got to fix this. I think that’s the first step,” Maloy said.

Maloy added, “It really does make a difference as a member of Congress to hear from people like you to come testify from these committees, and tell members of Congress from both sides of the aisle how these regulations are impacting your business, that has a way bigger impact than a policy discussion, that sort of theoretical about how this is impacting businesses all over the country.”

Curtis, who noted that 90% of his 3rd Congressional District is federal land, pointed to the Bureau of Land Management’s Conservation and Landscape Health rule, which includes both protection and restoration under the definition of “conservation.” Curtis called the rule powerful for the agency and problematic for the economies of rural counties.

“Grazing could be taken away, energy production could be taken away, recreation could be taken away with no ability to push back,” Curtis said. “When we do that, we basically empower people who live 2,000 miles away to make decisions about the land.”

Pushback on federal management can be seen as Utahns not wanting to take care of the land, Curtis said. He insisted it’s the opposite.

“And I just wish all of my bureaucratic friends in Washington, D.C. would actually come here and see how good a job we actually do, and have done for decades and decades and decades managing this land, balancing preservation with economic development,” he said.

Utah News Dispatch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news source covering government, policy and the issues most impacting the lives of Utahns.