Independent Agency Rules — Week of Jul 28, 2025

Several executive orders and congressional floor speeches this week raised questions about whether the White House is directing agencies that are supposed to make decisions based on science and law rather than politics. The actions span environmental permitting, nuclear safety, homelessness policy, and AI procurement.

An executive order on data center permitting directs the EPA and other agencies to modify environmental review requirements to speed construction of data centers, including by creating broad exemptions from environmental review and instructing changes to Clean Air and Clean Water Act regulations. The administration may view this as necessary to keep pace with AI infrastructure demands and maintain economic competitiveness—and prior presidents have used similar coordination tools. Another order on civil commitment directs the Attorney General to seek reversal of court rulings protecting the rights of people with mental illness and uses federal funding to pressure states to change their commitment laws. This might matter because these directives could affect the independence of agencies like the EPA, which Congress established to make public health and environmental decisions based on scientific evidence rather than political preference, and could affect court-established civil liberties protections designed to prevent indefinite commitment without adequate safeguards.

At the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a bipartisan dispute played out on the Senate floor. Senator Whitehouse described Department of Energy personnel operating inside the NRC without Commission oversight—pushing out experienced nuclear safety experts, cutting staff, and sidelining the agency's lawyer. Congress deliberately separated the NRC from DOE so that the agency promoting nuclear energy wouldn't also be the one judging its safety. Senator Capito countered that Congress passed bipartisan legislation directing NRC to modernize, and the nominee has strong qualifications. This is an important alternative explanation: some changes may reflect legitimate congressional mandates or routine transition-period restructuring rather than improper interference. However, specific personnel maneuvers described by Whitehouse—bypassing Commission-approved officers, inserting fossil fuel lawyers into a nuclear safety agency—may exceed what the modernization law intended.

A third executive order on "Woke AI" requires independent agencies to follow White House definitions of acceptable artificial intelligence. While standardizing government technology purchases is normal and may improve efficiency, defining what counts as "truth" for agency tools is a different kind of control.

Limitations: This analysis is based on AI-assisted review of public documents and congressional speeches, which may reflect partisan perspectives. Executive orders often look different in practice than on paper, and agencies may push back on directives that exceed legal authority.