Death on the river

Your story about Anne Gorsuch Burford’s tenure at the Environmental Protection Agency brings back some bad memories, especially for those working in chemical industries in the early 1980s (“Scott Pruitt isn’t the first administrator hostile to the EPA’s mission,” HCN, 3/20/17). The chemical industry was quite successful in getting implementation of new and lower exposure […]

I wonder if under President Donald Trump we’ll go back to Congress deciding every policy detail and micromanaging federal agencies, creating massive stagnation in light of a Congress that views collaboration as capitulation to the enemy (“Shifting scales,” HCN, 5/1/17). I don’t have a legal background but I can’t see that the Chevron decision is […]

Your “Recapture Canyon rules” update in the May 1 issue had this quote from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke: “For many persons with disabilities or for people who just don’t get around like they used to, our public lands aren’t accessible without motorized vehicles.” For folks with legitimate disabilities, I can see this in appropriate spots, […]

This is a thoughtful article, but I would like to advance a contrary view (“Shifting scales,” HCN, 5/1/17). Our basic theory of government is that Congress enacts the laws, the executive enforces the laws, and the courts decide the facts and the laws’ meaning.  Administrative agencies have been fit into this structure under the theory […]