Judicial Review Improvement Act of 2017

In general— Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in any judicial review of an agency action pursuant to chapter 7 of title 5, United States Code, to the extent necessary to decide when presented, the reviewing court shall determine the meaning or applicability of the terms of an agency action and decide de novo all relevant questions of law, including the interpretation of constitutional and statutory provisions and rules made by an agency. If the reviewing court determines that a statutory or regulatory provision relevant to its decision contains a gap or ambiguity, the court shall not interpret that gap or ambiguity as an implicit delegation to the agency of legislative rulemaking authority and shall not rely on such gap or ambiguity as a justification either for interpreting agency authority expansively or for deferring to the agency’s interpretation on the question of law. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this Act shall apply in any action for judicial review of agency action authorized under any provision of law. No law may exempt any such civil action from the application of this Act except by specific reference to this Act.

Agency defined— For purposes of this section, the term agency means the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the National Credit Union Administration, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.