NAHB Podcast: Clarity from Chevron Ruling, Concern Over Debate

On the latest episode of NAHB’s podcast, Housing Developments, CEO Jim Tobin and COO Paul Lopez touch on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the Chevron deference and housing discussion (or lack thereof) during the presidential debate.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling overturning the Chevron deference, which has given federal agencies wide latitude to interpret the scope of the nation’s laws. NAHB has a long history of fighting against Chevron deference because it allows federal agencies to write the laws, enforce the laws and interpret the laws.

Although it offers a new opportunity to challenge regulations, the real win is how this should improve the legislative process by promoting more carefully crafted and bipartisan legislation.

“More importantly, I think you're going to find subject matter experts, especially like those we have here at NAHB — we’re going to rely on them to write the new laws, and I think that’s a good thing,” Tobin noted.

“We’re going to get better laws because of this,” he added. “Let's rely on writing good, solid, bipartisan, enduring laws.”

Tobin and Lopez also review the presidential debate performance, which was disappointing on a number of fronts — including its lack of dialogue around housing.

“It’s really unfortunate because the economy is such a big campaign issue and housing is such a big issue for the economy,” Tobin stated. “That it was not mentioned — even in a passing blow — it was really disappointing from a policy perspective.”