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A group of more than 50 academics on Monday wrote a letter to congressional leaders urging them to restore agency independence following last month’s Supreme Court ruling, which granted President Trump the authority to fire commissioners of independent agencies without cause.
The professors argue that the ruling stalled business for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Federal Election Commission, Merit Systems Protection Board and National Labor Relations Board, as the independent bodies struggle to implement regulation due to their inability to sustain a quorum.
A quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present at a meeting to officially and legally conduct business, hold votes, or make decisions, according to Merriam-Webster.
“The faithful implementation of law is not a partisan concern. Strategic vacancies are a tool available to any administration, of either party, and the vulnerabilities will outlast this President. In other commissions, the absence of a quorum requirement allows a single member to exercise complete control over the agency,” the educators wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), according to a letter reviewed by The Hill.
“After the removal of two of its three members in April 2025, the National Credit Union Administration announced that a single member constitutes a quorum when no others remain, reading the statutory requirement of ‘a majority of the Board’ to mean a majority of whoever remains,” they added, noting the board’s sole remaining member has governed alone for more than a year.
Chair Kyle Hauptman is the last board member standing following Trump’s decision to fire fellow board members Todd Harper and Tanya Otsuka.
Hauptman is now leading a proceeding to repeal or scale back 31 regulations on his own.
“This defeats Congress’s intent for commissions to act through collective decisionmaking,” the professors argued.
“A range of reforms would hold the President accountable and increase the cost of dismantling commissions,” they added.
The group of academics proposed that lawmakers instate a rule preventing single-appointees from governing an agency by establishing a default quorum.
They’re also pushing to require presidents to nominate a replacement after firings within a 90-day period in order to fill vacancies. Similarly, the professors want to grant individuals the right to file claims in federal court whenever an adjudicatory agency lacks a quorum to hear them.
Offices for Thune, Schumer, Johnson or Jeffries did not immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
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