Comment by rayiner

The agencies are not charged with pursuing a maximalist version of some open-ended “mission.” They are charged with enforcing the law. Congress understands that such enforcement involves compromises and tradeoffs and delegated authority to the executive branch to manage those tradeoffs. Making tradeoffs between competing interests is the central function of politics—it’s why we have elected government. Presidential elections then allow voters to turn the knobs that control how those agencies make tradeoffs.

Like, Richard Nixon didn’t create an EPA that was going to pursue maximalist environmentalist goals no matter who was elected President. Nobody thought that when the EPA was created.