WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Peter Welch (D-Vt.) this week joined Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) and his colleagues in introducing a bill to reverse the Supreme Court’s recent decision that significantly extends the length of time plaintiffs have to challenge federal regulations. The Agency Stability Restoration Act would reverse the court’s decision in Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, issued earlier this month. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) also cosponsored the legislation.  

“The Corner Post decision is just another example of this activist Supreme Court’s broken priorities, placing far-right ideology over decades of judicial precedent,” said Senator Welch. “In addition to undermining Congress’ intent in the Administrative Procedure Act, this decision has endangered the safety of hardworking people and their families. Our bill will reinstate crucial regulations that Congress put in place to protect consumers, small businesses, and the environment.”  

“The flawed decision by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority in Corner Post reverses decades of settled administrative law,” said Senator Coons. “The court’s ruling will make it more difficult for federal agencies to keep our water and air clean, ensure that corporations play by the rules, and protect Americans from dangerous products. I encourage my colleagues to heed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s call in her dissenting opinion to reverse this decision and restore the regulatory stability that small businesses owners, consumers, and all Americans need to thrive.” 

“The Supreme Court’s Corner Post decision made Americans less safe by increasing litigation over regulatory safeguards and making it harder for federal agencies to protect the public,” said Lisa Gilbert, Co-President, Public Citizen. “The Agency Stability Restoration Act of 2024 would prevent the disruptive impact of the Supreme Court’s decision by reinstating a time limit for legal challenges to regulatory protections. If Congress does not act, longstanding regulations that have protected consumers, workers, our environment, and public health and safety for years, even decades, could be newly challenged by corporations that want to boost their profits at the public’s expense.” 

In Corner Post, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority concluded that plaintiffs allegedly injured by agency actions could bring their challenges within six years of their injury, rather than within six years of final agency action, significantly extending the amount of time plaintiffs have to challenge regulations. This decision undermines public agencies’ ability to create rules that safeguard everyday Americans and small businesses, as well as the environment, healthcare, and consumer welfare, by allowing a stream of legal challenges to those rules long after those rules were first promulgated, finalized, and litigated.  

The Agency Stability Restoration Act would reinstate decades of precedent by reversing the court’s decision, making clear that challenges to agency actions must be brought within six years after the challenged action was finalized.  

Read the full text of the bill. 

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