While William L. Kovacs is today well-known for his award-winning and acclaimed books on reducing the size and power of the federal government, his most influential contributions lie in his forty-plus-year career, during which he played pivotal roles in the formation of federal regulatory, environment, energy, and transportation policy.
His first book, Reform the Kakistocracy, Rule by the Least Able or Least Principled Citizens, was awarded the 2021 Independent Press Award for Social/Political Change and the 2020 Bronze Book Award from the Non-Fiction Authors Association. It also received three 5-star reviews from Readers’ Favorite. Kovacs also authored The Left’s Little Red Book on Forming a Green New Republic. His most recent book, Devolution of Power: Rolling Back the Federal State to Preserve the Republic, received a 5-star review from Readers’ Favorite and is a 2024 finalist in the 18th Annual National Indie Book Excellence Awards.
In addition to books, Kovacs contributes articles to The Thinking Conservative, The Libertarian Republic, Post & Email, Medium.com, The Hill, Townhall, Reality News, and several other publications. A collection of his almost two hundred articles can be found at www.ReformTheKakistocracy.com
In policy formation, Kovacs served as senior vice president for environment, technology & regulatory affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a chief counsel on Capitol Hill, chairman of a state environmental board involved with the siting of hazardous waste facilities, a partner in Washington, DC law firms, and a legislative assistant and counsel to a member of Congress. He has testified before Congress forty times, participated in over four- hundred federal agency rulemakings, published numerous policy and law review articles, and has given significant policy presentations in over forty states.
Some of his notable achievements include being chief counsel on the enactment of two historic laws in one session of Congress—the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the first U.S. law to regulate solid and hazardous waste, and the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976, which reorganized the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad into Conrail. This law saved the railroad industry in the Northeast and Midwest United States and was the most significant corporate reorganization in the U.S.
In other leadership roles, Kovacs successfully led business and industry coalitions that resulted in the enactment of significant legislation, including the 2015 permit streamlining of federal infrastructure projects (FAST-41), the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the 2002 Brownfields Revitalization Act and the Federal Data Access law of 1999.
One of his more notable achievements was defeating poorly designed laws that would adversely impact the nation’s economic well-being. For a decade, Kovacs led major business and industry coalitions to defeat Democrat attempts to enact sweeping climate change laws that would have imposed hundreds of regulations on all aspects of American society and trillions of dollars in costs with little environmental benefit. Kovacs advocated an approach that relied on developing long-term transformative technologies, government transparency to resolve fundamental scientific uncertainties, global participation, and worldwide technology transfer. His ideas on addressing climate change can be found in a 2008 Georgetown University Journal of Law and Public Policy compendium on the issue. His article is “Climate Change Policy: Government Mandates Full of Sound and Fury Could Signal Disaster.” (It appears Georgetown University or Google removed the compendium and only publishes articles from 2020 onwards.) Kovacs’ efforts were so effective that the Brown University Climate and Development Lab dubbed his actions the “Kovacs era ” of the Chamber’s climate policy discourse.
Kovacs’ first job on Capitol Hill was as a legislative assistant and counsel to Congressman Fred B. Rooney (D-PA). In that position, in addition to his traditional legislative functions, he led the successful litigation effort against the Nixon White House to declare the impoundment of federal funds for local water and sewer programs illegal. Kovacs won the case for the Congressman.
In retaliation for Kovacs filing the suit on behalf of the Congressman, Nixon’s Department of Justice initiated a criminal investigation alleging that filing a lawsuit was outside of his authorized duties as a congressional staffer and was a criminal offense. Senator Sam Irvin, the Watergate Investigation Committee chairman, incorporated the Justice Department’s investigation of Kovacs into his hearings on Removing Politics from the Administration of Justice (March 1974). Subsequently, the Justice Department dropped the investigation, and the federal district court found the administration’s actions illegal and ordered the release of all $400 million of impounded funds. The Executive’s illegal impoundment of congressionally appropriated funds became a driving force for enacting the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
In 2020, Kovacs was awarded The Marquis Who’s Who Publishing Board Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he received the Partner of the Year from the National Black Chamber of Commerce. Over the years, Kovacs has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in the East, and Who’s Who of Emerging Leaders in America.
With this background, Kovacs writes about how to reduce federal power by devolving it to the states.