Jeffrey Stein  //  11/30/17  //  Topic Update

Given the Senate’s approval early Saturday of a landmark tax overhaul, Republicans expressed confidence that final legislation would be sent to President Trump by the end of this month. (NYT)

• The tax reform proposal rewards those who move money offshore, writes Jesse Drucker in the New York Times.
• The White House debate on the bill became a family affair (NYT) with the potential to reshape American life (NYT)
• The Republican tax plan should not be raising taxes on anyone, Marc Thiessen writes in The Washington Post.
• The last minute wrangling over the bill reflected tensions within the GOP over how seriously to take deficits (WP).
• However, including automatic triggers down the line is bad policy (WSJ)

A federal judge denied Leandra English's request for a temporary restraining order in litigation over who is the acting director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (NYT, Politico)

•  In the New Yorker, John Cassidy explains the stakes of the case

Earlier in the week, Richard Cordray resigned as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). He named English as its Acting Director. But President Trump appointed his own Acting Director, Mick Mulvaney. Late Sunday night, English filed suit against Trump and Mulvaney, seeking emergency relief. (NYT, Politico).

• English's complaint and motion for a temporary restraining order can be found here.
• The Dodd-Frank Act, which established the CFPB, lays out the path of succession (NYT).
• Here on Take Care, Brianne Gorod has explained why English is now the Acting Director
• Other scholars have weighed in on different sides of the issue, including Daniel Hemel, Marty Lederman, Nina Mendelson, and Adam White. 
• The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) issued a memo defending Mulvaney's appointment (here).
• The OLC Memo omits key analysis, argues Adam Levitin at Credit Slips.
• A writ of quo warranto could decide who holds the office, notes Sam Bray at the Volokh Conspiracy.
• The Administration could simply fire English as Acting Director, but that would cause problems by acknowledging that she held the position (Josh Blackman’s Blog).
• According to Reuters, a top lawyer at the CFPB has concluded that Trump has the authority to appoint Mulvaney.

The EPA  finalized a rule that will maintain the biofuels quota steady (The Hill).  

The Federal Reserve vice chairman of supervision urged central banks to “tread cautiously” with digital currencies (The Hill).

The cost/benefit analysis on net neutrality shows that the best approach is to “trust, but verify,” argues Tejas Narechania at Take Care.

• But the end of net neutrality spells doom for the Internet as we know it, writes Farhad Manjoo in The New York Times.
  

Carpenter highlights the increasingly central role of cell phones in modern life (Wired)

Although Nebraska approved the Keystone XL pipeline last week, Pipeline supporters must still seek Bureau of Land Management permits and will likely face lawsuits challenging the decision (The Hill).

President Trump has not seen notable legislative successes, but has made dramatic strides to undo Obama-era regulation and executive action, observes Dan Balz at the Washington Post.

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