Trump's assault on independent agencies endangers us all

Summary: Independent agencies were carefully designed by Congress to ensure that those charged with safeguarding critically important public interests—like workers’ rights, product safety, or household financial security—would act to serve the public good, not the president’s political needs. However, since taking office, the Trump administration has been on a crusade to attack and undermine the effectiveness of independent agencies. Trump has taken several unprecedented and illegal steps to politicize these agencies, including:

Summarily firing dozens of independent agency leaders—who, by law, can only be removed from office for misconduct—based on political disagreements and then either stacking boards with Trump loyalists or letting seats sit vacant, depriving agencies of the ability to function.

Implementing new controls over the day-to-day operations of agencies, including giving the White House control over which agency projects to fund or defund, and requiring every agency leader to employ a “White House liaison” in their office.

For the first time, requiring independent agencies to submit draft regulations to the Office of Management and Budget for White House review prior to publication and to coordinate with the White House to review all their existing regulations, giving Trump the power to change or veto independent agencies’ expert-led standards.

https://www.epi.org/publication/trumps-assault-on-independent-agencies-endangers-us-all/