Returning Power to the People Act of 2024

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8928 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 8928

    To provide for certain reforms pertaining to Chevron deference.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 2, 2024

  Mr. Pfluger (for himself, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Duncan, Mr. Alford, Mr. 
  Griffith, Mr. Zinke, Mrs. Miller of West Virginia, Mr. Fry, and Mr. 
  Newhouse) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
    Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committee on 
     Oversight and Accountability, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To provide for certain reforms pertaining to Chevron deference.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Returning Power to the People Act of 
2024''.

SEC. 2. GAO REPORT ON CHEVRON CASES.

    Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit to Congress a 
report identifying matters wherein Chevron deference was implicated. 
The report shall compile a list of the statutes and rules implicated in 
each such matter that are in effect as of the date of the report. The 
analysis will consider and report on the private party interests that 
were or would be impacted as a result of the court according such 
deference.

SEC. 3. AGENCY PREDICTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

    Each Federal agency shall conduct a review of any matter to which 
the agency was a party since the decision was issued in Chevron U.S.A., 
Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 wherein 
the agency was accorded Chevron deference. The agency shall identify 
the statute or rule implicated, the interpretation of the agency, and 
what alternative interpretations were asserted by another party. The 
agency shall reassess the interpretation of the agency in a written, 
published memorandum supporting, reversing, or modifying such 
interpretation.

SEC. 4. LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD.

     In any civil action before a Federal court, the court may not show 
greater deference to the interpretation of a statute by one party to 
the civil action. Instead, the court shall issue its own interpretation 
pursuant to the principles of statutory interpretation.

SEC. 5. PROPER DELEGATION.

    No agency may issue a rule except to the extent that the authority 
to do so has been explicitly conferred by statute. To the extent that 
no such authority has been conferred, the agency shall assume that no 
such authority has been conferred.

SEC. 6. AGENCY EMPLOYEE INTERPRETATION ACCOUNTABILITY.

    Each agency shall evaluate officers and employees to identify any 
officer or employee who substantially and personally contributes to the 
interpretation of a statute or rule. Any such officer or employee shall 
be considered to be exercising duties reserved for members of the 
excepted service.

SEC. 7. OVERCRIMINALIZATION REDUCTION.

    No agency may make a rule if any provision of law imposes a 
criminal penalty for an offense and an element of such offense involves 
a violation of such rule unless the rule also includes a specified mens 
rea. In the case of any such rule in effect as of the date of enactment 
of this Act, no person may be prosecuted for such an offense.

SEC. 8. CONGRESSIONAL DIRECTION IN CIVIL PENALTIES.

    No agency may collect any administrative fine or civil monetary 
penalty for the violation of a rule, except to the extent that the 
statute or the rule provides for a mens rea standard for any violation 
thereof.

SEC. 9. ACCESS TO INDEPENDENT COURTS.

     Any determination by a Federal agency in a proceeding before that 
agency shall be subject to direct appeal to a Federal district court 
unless a statute explicitly specifies an administrative process that 
must be exhausted.

SEC. 10. FAIRNESS IN ADMINISTRATIVE ADJUDICATION.

    In the case of any proceeding before an agency, if an appeal may 
not be taken to a Federal district court or a Federal Court of Appeals 
until the final exhaustion of all administrative remedies, any appeal 
thereafter shall be reviewed de novo and the record of proceedings 
before the agency shall, at any party's request, be supplemented or set 
aside for a trial de novo.

SEC. 11. TRANSPARENCY IN AGENCY ACTION.

    Any final agency action may only rely on pre-published, publicly 
available and accessible materials in the form of rules, agency 
guidance, memorandum or other types of agency policy documents. If a 
court determines that an agency action is not clear and accessible to a 
member of the general public on a website or similar database prior to 
the decision being made, the agency action relying on such inaccessible 
policy guidance shall be considered void.

SEC. 12. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) terms used have the meanings given such terms in 
        section 551 of title 5, United States Code;
            (2) the term ``matter'' means a case before a Federal 
        court, a proceeding before an agency, or an agency decision; 
        and
            (3) the term ``Chevron deference'' means deference accorded 
        by a court to the interpretation of a Federal statute by a 
        Federal agency pursuant to the decision in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. 
        v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837.
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