By Arjun Singh
Daily Caller News Foundation
The House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday to limit the rulemaking powers of federal administrative agencies and require Congress to approve all new major rules.
The REINS Act – also known as the “Regulations from the Executive In Need Of Scrutiny Act” – mandates that Congress must vote to approve all “major” executive branch regulations – defined as having an economic effect of $100 million or more – must be approved by Congress in order to take effect. The bill was passed along party lines, by a vote of 221-210.
Congressional Republicans have been critical of the Biden administration’s regulatory agenda, which has been used to impose new rules regarding climate policy, student debt and gun control. Republicans in the House and Senate, together with moderate Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have passed bills repealing such regulations, which have not succeeded after being vetoed by Biden.
🔥🔥🔥@RepKatCammack throws down on why the #REINSAct is so important and necessary to stop the crushing regulations of the regulatory regime. Whether you call it the “silent American dream-killer” or the “fourth branch of gov’t,” the executive overreach must end. pic.twitter.com/wCDZtoU1Nv
— Rep. Cammack Press Office (@RepKatCammack) June 14, 2023
“During the first year of this administration, the Biden White House added more than $200B in new regulatory costs. These new regulations cost the American taxpayers over $2T per year in compliance costs and economic losses without the proper oversight from the legislative branch,” said Republican Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida, the bill’s sponsor at its introduction. Over 140 House Republicans signed onto the bill as co-sponsors.
The CRA process would still be followed by Congress for non-major rules, i.e., costing below $100 million, according to the legislation. This cost would be estimated by the Comptroller General of the United States, who heads the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
During the floor consideration of the bill, several amendments to the definition of a “major rule” were passed. These included one proposed by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, which expanded the definition to include rules likely to result in mandatory vaccinations, and another proposed by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, requiring the GAO to publish an estimate of a rule’s effect on inflation.
The REINS Act has been introduced many times in both Houses of Congress. Cammack introduced it previously in 2021, as did Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky in 2017.
Efforts to reduce the Executive Branch’s regulatory power tie into conservative criticism of the “administrative state,” referring to bureaucracies that issue rules to implement legislation. Conservatives have lamented rulemaking by unelected bureaucrats, with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon claiming that he wanted to deconstruct the administrative state in 2017.
WND is now on Trump’s Truth Social! Follow us @WNDNews
It is highly unlikely that the REINS Act will become law in this Congress amid Democratic opposition. In a statement, the Biden administration wrote that “the Act would undermine agencies’ efforts by inserting into the regulatory process an unwieldy, unnecessary, and time-consuming hurdle” and that Biden would veto the bill.
Cammack did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected].
IMPORTANT NOTE: “Election denier!” “Science denier!” “Climate-change denier!” “Conspiracy theorist!” And then there’s “hate speech,” “fake news,” “disinformation,” “misinformation,” even something called “MALinformation.” A bizarre new lexicon has been conjured up by America’s elites, the SOLE PURPOSE of which is to discredit and ridicule – and if at all possible, CENSOR ENTIRELY – speech that doesn’t support their increasingly dark and deranged agenda. Tucker Carlson is just the latest.
In the greatest imaginable irony, the nation once boasting the most robust culture of freedom of speech and the press – undergirded by the strongest constitutional protections for those rights – is now ground zero for a total war on free expression.
How could this possibly happen in the United States of America? It’s all explained as never before in the sensational new issue of WND’s critically acclaimed WHISTLEBLOWER magazine, titled “THE ELITES’ ALL-OUT WAR ON FREE SPEECH.” WHISTLEBLOWER is available in both the popular print edition and a state-of-the-art digital version, either single issues or discounted annual subscriptions.
SUPPORT TRUTHFUL JOURNALISM. MAKE A DONATION TO THE NONPROFIT WND NEWS CENTER. THANK YOU!
