Donald Trump is trying to extend his authority over government agencies that Congress made independent.
The president issued an executive order Tuesday ordering these agencies to first send any proposed regulations to the White House for review. It also gives Trump the power to block the agencies from using funds for anything that goes against what he wants, and requires agencies to accept the Justice Department and Trump’s interpretation of the law as binding.
The agencies the order is going after include the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Communications Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Trade Commission. It partially covers the Federal Reserve in issues related to regulating Wall Street, but doesn’t include its monetary policies such as controlling interest rates.
The move is a blatant power grab on Trump’s part to control agencies that could push back against his agenda. Plus, it sets up a showdown with Congress over the funding given to these agencies, as the legislature appropriates funds to them for specific purposes. In effect, Trump is trying to take away Congress’s authority over such agencies.
“This is a power move over independent agencies, a structure of administration that Congress has used for various functions going back to the 1880s,” legal scholar Peter M. Shane told The New York Times.
Conservatives have long sought to weaken these independent agencies, if not bring them under total control of the president, in order to free business interests from what they see as restrictive regulations. Russell Vought, recently confirmed to run the Office of Management and Budget and an architect of the conservative manifesto Project 2025, said two years ago that such a presidential takeover was the goal.
“What we’re trying to do is identify the pockets of independence and seize them,” Vought said.
In a court filing Sunday, the Trump administration argued that the president has “unrestricted power” to fire agency heads. It seems that in the opinion of Trump and his fellow conservatives, such power is only the tip of the iceberg.