“There’s nothing in the statute that I’m aware of, or any regulations that have interpreted the terms of the emergency exception, to include a ‘Really Important Things That We Think the Government Should be Doing and Would be Really Unpopular if They Don’t Do Them’ exception,” says Richard Lazarus, law professor at Harvard University. “I don’t know how that possibly fits – but they know there will be hell to pay if people don’t get their tax refunds.”
January 22, 2019