Subcommittee Announces Vote on Bill to Analyze How Layers of Regulations Affect Job Creation, Energy Prices, and Economic Competitiveness

Press Release

On Friday, the Subcommittee on Energy and Power will hold a markup on the Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation Act of 2011 ("TRAIN Act"), H.R. 2401. An earlier version of the bipartisan legislation was approved by the panel by voice vote on May 24. Consideration of the legislation comes after the sponsors of the TRAIN Act, Reps. John Sullivan (R-OK) and Jim Matheson (D-UT), reintroduced the bill to include certain changes, primarily to ensure the Congressional Budget Office's accounting of any possible costs of the legislation accurately reflect the bill's intent and structure.

The TRAIN Act would require an interagency committee to analyze the cumulative economic impacts of certain EPA rules in an effort to better understand how these policies affect American manufacturing, global competitiveness, energy prices, and jobs. The goal of the legislation is not to reinvent the wheel with a new analysis, but rather to expand upon analyses already being conducted to account for the impacts of multiple regulations affecting the manufacturing and energy sectors at the same time. H.R. 2401 clarifies that agencies should use the best data available and that there is no requirement for the creation of new data.

Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Energy and Power Subcommittee Vice Chairman John Sullivan, one of the bill's authors, issued the following statement on the bill's reintroduction:

"Each of these regulations handed down from Washington and imposed upon American manufacturers and energy suppliers have an impact on American jobs and on consumers, but the real question for which we have no answer is how all of these rules taken together -- layered on top of each other and confusingly intertwined -- affect national job creation, the reliability and the cost of our energy supply, and the ability of American companies to compete on the global stage. Federal agencies are already conducting economic analysis of the costs and the benefits of each regulation, but they have not yet studied how many costly regulations affecting the same industry at the same time could needed suffocate job creation and increase prices. With the TRAIN Act, we are calling on the expert analysts at federal agencies to work together and ask the right questions to provide both regulators and policymakers with a clearer picture of these regulations and their cumulative impact on the American people and the American economy.

"The TRAIN Act moved through the Energy and Power Subcommittee earlier this year, and with some minor modifications, it will advance to the full committee after the subcommittee approves it on Friday. The bill as currently drafted includes an authorization of spending to anticipate a ceiling for what this regulatory analysis could cost, along with corresponding offsets. However, we continue to believe agencies can and should conduct this type of rigorous economic analysis with existing resources. Particularly in light of record debt and deficits, the TRAIN Act is designed to ultimately protect taxpayers and our economy by more clearly identifying the cost of regulations. The agencies should be able to conduct these analyses without asking the taxpayers for more of their hard-earned dollars."

The subcommittee markup of H.R. 2401 will convene on Friday, July 8, 2011, at 9:00 a.m. in room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building.

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