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There is a possible convergence.

There is a possible convergence.
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Stephen E. Herbits is an American businessman, former consultant to several Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries of Defense, executive vice president and corporate officer of the Seagram Company, advisor to the President's Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets, and secretary general of the World Jewish Congress. He was the youngest person to be appointed commissioner on the Gates Commission. Herbits' career has specialized in "fixing" institutions – governmental, business, and not-for-profit – with strategic planning and management consulting.

Republicans see government regulation as intrinsically bad; Democrats argue that regulations are protections and a necessary element of a democratic society. Yet, there is an opportunity for a convergence of views.


Some have described the difference as between a lack of intelligence and bad judgment by noting that intelligence is the intellectual gathering and perhaps understanding of information, sometimes for application, while bad judgment is an unjustified or emotionally driven attitude or action.

The Supreme Court decision in the case of Sackett v. EPA decided the case based on both. Will it be smart or partisan?

Over nearly two and a half centuries, Federal regulation has emerged organically when the public determined a need. The first Federal regulation followed the Civil War when the public demanded government intervention to assure proper treatment, including “repatriation,” of the fallen. Each subsequent regulation addressed the needs at that time: the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 followed by multiple health and safety protections.

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The intentional first Article of the U.S. Constitution, the Congress created a process or regulation, which is deliberately designed to be a process of mediation between conflicting interests. Corporations, a government created mechanism for conducting business, are designed to make profits by providing goods and services, regardless of their impact on the public. That system was and remains needed. However, this design to maximize shareholder and executive profit creates its own centrifugal force – greed.

To attempt a balance between corporate profits and the public’s needs and interests, the Congress repeatedly developed a carefully constructed process to mediate between those interests.

That process consists of rulemaking with public input, investigation and adjudication, and enforcement. In each, the regulatory format was created because the traditional three branches of government could not do the job. The Executive Branch was subject to too much partisan control. The Judicial Branch works so slowly as to make final decisions long after the health and safety protections have done too much damage. With large portions of its personnel changing, Congress could not learn the matters sufficiently, nor adjudicate nor enforce.

As a result, the Congress created a “Fourth Branch” in order to effectively address technical requirements in the “modern” area for health and safety, the inability to investigate and adjudicate failures to follow rules, and the ability to enforce them in a timely manner.

Imagine, for instance, a pharmaceutical company creating an ingestible drug to do whatever, making whatever claim, and selling it to the public without a check and balance on its safety and efficacy.

Imagine our rivers and lakes today without the Environmental Protection Agency – a need publicized by Rachel Carson in her 1962 book Silent Spring (one of her four books), recommended by a Republican president and enacted by a bi-partisan Congress. Now, in a significant shift, six members of the Judiciary Branch will make decisions for the agencies.

Not long ago, the FAA’s delegation of quality control to Boeing’s 737 Max resulted in hundreds of deaths, severe interference in the economy, and further loss of the public’s trust in government. This was a direct result of the failure of a regulatory agency to perform its duties responsibly -- a salient example that illustrates how essential regulatory agencies are in protecting the public.

There is, of course, the right of appeal to the judiciary for the failure to follow procedures set by Congress, but that is a far cry from usurping Congress and the regulatory agency’s ability to regulate at all.

It is no excuse that after years of institutional performance, some regulatory agencies need to refresh their system of rulemaking, investigation, adjudication, and enforcement. A specific, OMB authorized process -- similar to what corporations or auditors pay consultants to perform -- should begin that process immediately.

The need for an effective regulatory process is no excuse for today’s hyper-partisan Supreme Court to undermine the Fourth Branch with its own partisan decisions as to what is and what is not a “major” decision by Congress and undermine their carefully created mediation process to resolve conflict. Every rule now becomes unreliable. Short-term hyper-partisanship supported by lobbying and campaign contributions could become the new rule-making process.

The Third Branch of government, the Supreme Court, should not replace Congress’s role in creating, reviewing, and amending where necessary, the “Fourth Branch.”

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Trump to the Nation: "We're Just Getting Started"

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump is speaking about the early achievements of his presidency and his upcoming legislative agenda.

(Photo by Mandel Ngan-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump to the Nation: "We're Just Getting Started"

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In his speech, Trump highlighted his actions over the past six weeks, claiming to have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken over 400 executive actions to restore “common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth” across the country. He articulated that the electorate entrusted him with the leadership role and stressed that he was fulfilling that mandate.

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Veterans diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases should apply for compensation

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Getty Images, Inti St Clair

Veterans diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases should apply for compensation

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Even as demand exceeded supply, in 1942, a presidential order banned the use of asbestos for non-military purposes until 1945. The application of asbestos-based material by the Military continued to increase until the 1970s when its carcinogenic nature came to light, and the use of asbestos started to be regulated but not banned.

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With all the attention deservedly on President Trump and what he intends to do with his defiant return to the White House, there’s a more than good chance we’ll spend the next four years consumed once again by all things Trump.

There’s already been a dizzying amount: a giant raft of executive orders; attacks on a constitutional amendment; his threats to invade sovereign nations; a seeming Nazi salute from one of his biggest surrogates; his sweeping Jan. 6 pardons; his beef with a bishop; his TikTok flip-flop; his billion-dollar meme coin controversy; scathing new allegations against one of his Cabinet picks; unilaterally renaming a body of water; a federal crackdown on DEI; promises of immigration raids across major cities. All this in just the first three days of Trump’s second term.

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(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Linda McMahon Confirmed as Trump's Secretary of Education

On Monday, the Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Linda McMahon as the new U.S. Secretary of Education in a 51-45 vote along party lines.

McMahon, a former professional wrestling executive and head of the U.S. Small Business Administration during President Donald Trump's first term, takes on the role amid the administration’s stated goal of dismantling the department. While the White House has already implemented staff and program cuts, formally eliminating the department would require congressional approval, as it was established by an act of Congress in 1979.

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