Power Grab, Yet Again.

Every day it seems there's another story about another government agency power grab, and most of them are in sneaky, clandestine ways.

From AdAge:

The American Advertising Federation sent an e-mail today to its members warning them of impending legislation that it claims, if passed, could give the Federal Trade Commission "dramatically increased power," allowing it to easily enact industry-wide rules limiting advertising. Clark Rector, exec VP-government affairs at the AAF, said the legislation could be passed shortly after Congress gets back from its recess early next month.

Mr. Rector said the legislation is part of a financial-regulation reform bill, which has already passed the House, and that language "buried" in that bill would repeal the safeguards that have kept FTC rulemaking on advertising in check for over 30 years.

Under the current law, the FTC, before enacting industry-wide rules, is required to hold hearings on the proposed rules, prepare a statement of basis and purpose including the economic impact of a rule and identify an actual harm that a proposed rule is designed to address.

The new rulemaking procedures, according to the AAF's e-mail, would allow the FTC to issue rules "by simply publishing them in the Federal Register, wait 60 days for comments, and then issue a final rule." Mr. Rector said the most serious of the proposed changes issued by the commission would require a "court to determine that the FTC was arbitrary or capricious or abused its discretion before the court could overturn a rule, which is an almost impossible standard to meet if challenging a rule." Today the courts can send a rule back to the FTC if there is a lack of substantial evidence to uphold it.