Third bill passed by the House in December that would decrease burden on small businesses, help lead to greater private sector job creation
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) yesterday voted for legislation that would help lift the burden on small businesses and free them up to spend more, invest more, and produce more in order to create more jobs for American workers.
The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act passed by a vote of 241-184. Rep. Walden, a small business owner for nearly 22 years, is a cosponsor of the bill. It’s the third piece of legislation passed this month alone in the House that aims to increase private sector jobs.
According to the Small Business Administration, federal regulations cost the economy $1.75 trillion per year. Of the 4,225 regulations now in the pipeline, 224 are major rules with at least $100 million in economic impact. Seven of those new regulations are estimated to cost the economy more than $1 billion each.
“Passage by the House of the REINS Act is singularly one of the most important bills we’ve addressed this Congress because it puts the peoples’ representatives in a place where they can have an up-or-down vote on some of these job-killing regulations,” Rep. Walden said. “It’s important to be able to hold someone accountable to the voters, instead of some unelected rule-writer in Washington that’s never to be seen or heard from again. The REINS Act is commonsense policy that I’ve supported for a long time.”
The REINS Act (H.R. 10) would require Congress to take an up-or-down vote on agency regulations that have an economic impact of $100 million or more before they can be imposed on the American people and businesses. For too long, unelected federal officials and agencies have imposed huge costs on the economy and American people through burdensome regulations.
The bill reins in the costly overreach of federal agencies that stifles job creation and hinders economic growth and would make elected representatives accountable for costly regulations.
The REINS Act would apply to all new major regulations. A major regulation means any rule that the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finds has resulted in, or is likely to result in, either an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more, or a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state, or local government agencies. There were 95 final major regulations in 2008, 84 in 2009, and 100 in 2010.
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (H.R. 527) and the Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 3010)
Last week, the House of Representatives also passed — with Rep. Walden’s support — the Regulatory Flexibility Act and the Regulatory Accountability Act, which would help address the problem of reckless federal regulations that burden businesses and kill jobs. Both of these bills take strong measures to fix the problem of regulations that overreach and impose excessive costs on America’s job creators.
The Regulatory Flexibility Act would require federal agencies to analyze fully the impact a new regulation would have on small businesses before the agency adopts the regulation. The bill also strengthens requirements that agencies review and improve existing regulations to lower the burden on small business. H.R. 527 enhances the Small Business Administration’s ability to comment on and help shape major rules, assures uniform implementation of the law across all agencies and improves judicial review.
It has been 15 years since Congress last updated the existing Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980. During that time, we have seen that there are weaknesses in the regulatory process that federal agencies have exploited at the detriment of small businesses and job creators.
The Regulatory Accountability Act would amend the Administrative Procedure Act to include strong cost-benefit, transparency and accountability requirements. It would require agencies to assess the costs and benefits of regulatory alternatives. Unless interests of public health, safety or welfare require otherwise, agencies would have to adopt the least-costly alternative that achieves the regulatory objectives Congress has established. To decrease the influence of special interests, the bill would increase the transparency of the rulemaking process and give the public greater opportunities to comment and take part in the process.
The REINS Act, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, and the Regulatory Accountability Act now head to the Senate for action.
For a complete status update on House-passed jobs bills to empower small businesses, fix the tax code to help job creators, increase competitiveness for U.S. manufacturers, encourage entrepreneurship and growth, and maximize domestic energy production, go to http://walden.house.gov/jobsplan.
