What If Independent Regulators Are No Longer Independent?
In a test of a 90-year-old court decision, Trump is attempting to rein in US agencies that oversee everything from securities to cigarette lighters.
For decades, the US regulators who work to keep inflation down and economic growth up, ensure markets are competitive and transparent, safeguard elections, and protect workers, consumers and investors have operated largely free of political influence. The Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Federal Election Commission, and more than a dozen other regulatory agencies have a remit to make and enforce rules under leaders who are protected from being removed by the president. Their independence is meant to guarantee that their decisions serve only one master: the public.
President Donald Trump wants to upend that arrangement. The president and his allies are trying to exert control over these independent federal agencies, which they view as an extraconstitutional “fourth branch” of government. Trump has issued an order that aims to consolidate regulatory oversight in the White House and has fired several commissioners of independent agencies — moves with no precedent in modern history.