Reviving Congressional Reauthorization

A Symposium at The Regulatory Review engages with "Delegation and Time," and the question of whether Congress is capable of addressing nondelegation concerns.

In "Delegation and Time" (forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review), Christopher Walker and I argue that one of the more important, yet overlooked aspects of delegation is the passage of time, and suggest that the legislative branch (as opposed to the judiciary) may be best suited to address such concerns through greater use of mandatory reauthorizations and sunset provisions.

This week, The Regulatory Review is sponsoring an online symposium discussing our paper and the implications of our arguments. The symposium features comments from a wide range of administrative law experts.

Thus far, the series includes the following:

• Our introductory essay, Reviving Congressional Ambition;
• How Long is Too Long for Legislative Delegation? by Simon F. Haeder, Pennsylvania State University, and Susan Webb Yackee, University of Wisconsin-Madison;
• Delegation and Time … and Staff by Josh Chafetz, Cornell Law School;
• Institutional Gridlock by Joseph Postell, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs;

Additional essays will be posted over the next few days. These will include:

• Delegation, Time, and Congressional Capacity by Richard J. Pierce, Jr., George Washington University Law School;
• Punishing the Innocent by Richard W. Parker, University of Connecticut School of Law;
• A Reply to Our Interlocutors.

I'll add those links when they are available. They will also be available here.

We appreciate the time and effort these scholars took to engage with our work and look forward to continuing discussions about these issues. I"ll also be speaking about the paper at the Second Annual Legislative Branch Review Conference: Modernizing the First Branch, on March 12 in Washington, DC.