Six Steps to Reining in the Administrative State

Julia Shaw / March 02, 2011

In many ways, Obamacare clarified the problem of the administrative state. Congress routinely writes vague laws, delegating its authority to bureaucrats who make detailed regulations covering every aspect of our lives: from the light bulbs we use to the health care coverage we purchase. In passing Obamacare, Congress transferred important aspects of its legislative authority to various administrative agencies. Obamacare created a multitude of new federal agencies and empowered unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats to write detailed rules controlling one-sixth of the economy. This terribly unpopular law led millions of citizens to ask of themselves and their neighbors: Are we citizens in a constitutional republic or subjects of the administrative state?

Then the elections came. Americans went to the polls and voiced their opposition to the health care overhaul.  But is it too late for Congress to roll back the administrative state? Drawing on a recent Center for American Studies scholars’ conference on that topic (look for more papers to come), Robert Moffit offers six steps for Congress to roll back the administrative state. (more…)