John Ratcliffe: “I oppose this amendment. It is an amendment which carves out of my bill agency action based on statutes that expressly…”

“I oppose this amendment. It is an amendment which carves out of my bill agency action based on statutes that expressly grant agency discretion. As agencies seek to act within areas of statutory discretion, courts are more than able, more than qualified to determine responsibly whether the agencies have, in fact, acted within their discretion. Furthermore, Mr. Chairman, it is imperative that courts no longer defer to agencies, in defining as a matter of statutory interpretation, precisely what the limits of that discretion are. Otherwise, self- serving, unelected, and unaccountable bureaucrats will continue to interpret statutes in such a way as to intentionally empower agency overreach, and the courts will continue to stand idly by and let them get away with it. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time. {time} 2100”