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WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

Trump vs. 'Independent' Agencies / RFK Jr. and the Measles Outbreak

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

42.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Donald Trump orders "independent" agencies to run their regulations through the White House, an assertion of executive authority and democratic accountability that could help upend how Washington works. Plus, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. considers reshaping a CDC vaccine committee, while a measles outbreak in Texas hits 90 cases and 16 hospitalizations, mostly children. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Americans love using their credit cards, the most secure and hassle-free way to pay.

0:04.0

But DC politicians want to change that with the Durban Marshall Credit Card Bill.

0:08.0

This bill lets corporate megastores pick how your credit card is processed,

0:13.0

allowing them to use untested payment networks that jeopardize your data security and rewards.

0:18.0

Corporate megastores will make more money and you pay the price. Tell

0:22.2

Congress to guard your card because Americans lose when politicians choose. Learn more at guard

0:28.9

your card.com.

0:29.9

From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal. This is Potomac Watch.

0:44.2

President Trump moves again to assert control over so-called independent federal agencies as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to disrupt an immunization advisory committee

0:50.0

amid a measles outbreak in Texas that has now reached 90 cases and 16 hospitalizations,

0:56.4

most of them children with no verified vaccination.

1:00.0

Welcome, I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.

1:03.1

We're joined today by my colleagues, columnist Alicia Finley, and Kim Strassel.

1:08.4

Washington these days is an alphabet soup of agencies from the SEC and the FCC

1:13.6

to the FTC and the CFTC. Many of these are so-called independent agencies with directors,

1:21.3

commissioners, who can't be fired by the president except for cause under the law. President Trump

1:26.7

is challenging that president across the

1:28.8

board, and a new one came this week in an executive order titled, Ensuring Accountability for All

1:35.3

Agencies. Here is part of what it says. It says these regulatory agencies currently exercise

1:40.3

substantial executive authority without sufficient accountability to the president and through

1:46.0

him to the American people. Moreover, these regulatory agencies have been permitted to promulgate

1:51.3

significant regulations without review by the president. So this order is now telling

...

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