It’s my job, and I’ll regulate you if I want to. In the quintessential executive power grab, Su started her illustrious career at the Department of Labor as Acting Secretary … and wouldn’t leave. (Congress eventually confirmed Su as Labor Secretary after she held the Acting role for 22 months, 16 months longer than the law allows.) While Acting Secretary, she finalized a rule that established a minimum wage for white collar workers in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and potentially devastating to small businesses and workers alike.
Who needs Congress or the Supreme Court?! Richard Cordray, former Chief Operating Officer of Federal Student Aid at the Department of Education, couldn’t take no for an answer. The Supreme Court called him out when he tried to “pass a law” affecting millions of Americans and costing an estimated $400 billion. But pay no mind to the nation’s highest Court or the fact that the last time we checked Mr. Cordray wasn’t a member of Congress. Seemingly unfettered by the Constitution or a Supreme Court loss, he cooked up more unlawful loan forgiveness schemes. Maybe student loan forgiveness is a good policy; maybe it’s not. But it is unequivocally the job of Congress, not Richard Cordray, to make that call. Meanwhile, parents of college-bound students were stymied by the botched rollout of FAFSA “simplification.”