(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA) Senior Vice President of Legal, Government Affairs & Policy David Spangler released the below statement today following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the Chevron standard, a principle of judicial deference used by federal courts for nearly four decades when reviewing a federal agency’s interpretation of a statute it administers:
“Today's opinion from the Supreme Court significantly weakens deference to an agency's reasonable interpretation of an ambiguous statute. This change to a rule that has governed for 40 years will have wide-ranging reverberations for some time and will affect the certainty and clarity of decisions under complex statutes.
“While the Court did not call into question prior cases that relied on the Chevron framework, the Court's decision will require federal agencies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to be more circumspect in their implementation of statutory authority, and it will most certainly lead to more challenges to federal agency actions that would have otherwise been sustained under the Chevron< standard.
"CHPA supports a balanced approach to the regulatory process that allows federal agencies to make expert-driven, evidence-based decisions to protect public health that rely on a thorough, consistent interpretation of the underlying statute.”
Implications of this decision will be among the topics discussed at CHPA’s annual Regulatory, Scientific and Quality Conference being held September 17-18 in Bethesda, Md. Click here to register.
