The WSJ($) gave a very positive review for David Schoenbrod's new book Saving Our Environment From Washington:
With personal anecdote and scientific fact, Mr. Schoenbrod makes a compelling case that, by delegating lawmaking responsibility to government agencies, Congress has imposed huge costs on the economy and bad choices on the environment.
This was probably not what the Framers had in mind. The "nondelegation" clause of the Constitution -- Article I, Section 1 -- states unequivocally that federal laws must be passed by Congress. But all too often today Congress merely sets vague goals and then delegates to regulatory bureaucrats -- who are, by definition, unaccountable to the people -- the task of deciding what, specifically, industries and individuals must do. When the bureaucrats make controversial decisions -- decisions painful to various voter constituencies -- congressmen and senators complain, of course. But in fact, Mr. Schoenbrod notes, they like this system. It allows them to pass feel-good laws while blaming someone else for their effects.
They sold me. The Supreme Court's evisceration of the delegation doctrine is at least as much to blame for the expansion of the federal government since the New Deal as is the court's Commerce Clause jurisprudence. So I'm looking forward to getting my copy of Schoenbrod's to see what he has to say about it.
