Another element of Infrastructure Week apparently is going to be a very vigorous effort to dismantle the administrative state, as the long-deceased Steve Bannon once put it. The New York Times has the state of play for us—and, for a bonus, a reason not to be entirely sorry that Rachel Brand left the Justice Department.

The new policy, issued by the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, Rachel L. Brand, is significant because federal agencies have issued hundreds of guidance documents on a wide range of laws covering issues like health care, the environment, civil rights and labor. Under the revised policy, Ms. Brand said, the Justice Department will not “use its enforcement authority to effectively convert agency guidance documents into binding rules.” Moreover, she said, Justice Department lawyers, who represent federal agencies in court, “may not use noncompliance with guidance documents as a basis for proving violations of applicable law.”

In a footnote, the Trump administration makes clear that the new policy has broad ramifications: It applies to any civil lawsuits filed on behalf of the federal government to “impose penalties for violations of federal health, safety, civil rights or environmental laws.” It also applies to cases in which the government asserts that health care providers or federal contractors defrauded the government by filing false or inflated claims.

Given that Infrastructure Week depends so heavily on “public-private partnerships,” that last part might as well be ringing the dinner bell.

In view of the new policy, said Lindsey E. Gabrielsen, a lawyer in the Boston office of the law firm Foley & Lardner, the government “will face serious hurdles” in enforcement actions based on violations of health care guidance documents. Environmental and civil rights lawyers are reaching similar conclusions. Sidley Austin, a large corporate law firm, recently advised clients that the new Justice Department policy “has major implications” for federal efforts to enforce the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. The Justice Department, Sidley said, “relies heavily on Environmental Protection Agency guidance documents to establish violations of law.”

Given the overwhelming strength of organized labor in our present and future economies, these are probably obsolete provisions anyway.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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