Congress passes laws giving agencies such as the EPA broad powers to create & enforce regulations. Given that these Congressional laws often are hundreds of pages long, they are open to broad interpretation by the agency.
The agency budget, passed by Congress, is another factor. If the agency (EPA) is generously funded, then it becomes very powerful, while little funding means little power. Swat team raids on Dairy farmers ain't cheap. Harassing citizens over false claims of wetlands requires numerous expensive bureaucrats & lawyers. As with any quasi-criminal enterprise, you need a lot of money to support a lot of soldiers.
Given that our “leaders” have a long, long history of growing gov’t, there is virtually no possibility that the power & reach of the EPA & other tyrannical federal agencies will EVER be sufficiently curbed. Not by Congress & not by the courts.
“Given that our “leaders” have a long, long history of growing gov’t, there is virtually no possibility that the power & reach of the EPA & other tyrannical federal agencies will EVER be sufficiently curbed. Not by Congress & not by the courts...”
Well, if that’s the case, I can think of only one other way by which such powers will be “sufficiently curbed”...