Sheila Jackson Lee: “Let me thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for his leadership of the subcommittee from which this…”

“Let me thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Johnson) for his leadership of the subcommittee from which this legislation, I believe, has found its journey. Let me also acknowledge my colleague from Texas. On the Judiciary Committee, we have the benefit of the counsel of nonlawyers. It is a new phenomenon. When I first came on, we had only lawyers on the committee. But as a lawyer who remembers sitting in an administrative procedure law class by a seasoned senior professor at the University of Virginia Law School, I remember he was embedded for decades, and managed to make the Administrative Procedure Act interesting. And the one thing I knew, even as a younger law student, the APA, for 70 years--at that time it hadn't reached 70--had served and guided administrative agencies and the affected public in a manner that is flexible enough to accommodate the variety of agencies operating under it, inclusive of changes through time. So what saddens me as a person who enjoyed many aspects of law school and understands and enjoys the deliberation of issues dealing with the question of law is the complete skewing in spite of my friends who view this as remedy. And I would just like to offer them my thoughts as to why this is not: because the legislation would allow Federal courts reviewing an agency action to conduct a de novo review of all relevant questions of law without deferring to the legal interpretation of the agency. Now, let me be very clear.…”