News for the Ninth

Press Release

When I am traveling in the district, people often ask me what Congress can do to get people back to work. One thing Congress can and should do is exercise its constitutional right to serve as a check on the power of the executive branch, by reining in the Obama administration's out-of-control regulations that are preventing job growth in America.

According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Obama administration issued 408 economically significant rules, defined as costing $100 million or more, during its first two years. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has more than 100 rulemakings in process, including 30 that will cost $100 million and several that will cost $1 billion. In addition, the Department of Labor has 100 rulemakings in process; the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law passed in 2010 over my opposition contains 447 required or suggested rules; and the health-care law, which as you know I also opposed, will create 159 new agencies, commissions, panels, and other bodies.

Taken together, this regulatory onslaught will only drive the unemployment number in the wrong direction; it will perpetuate the uncertainty that exists among employers considering expansion, and even worse, it will force even more employers to downsize due to the direct costs of compliance or increased input costs.

It is imperative that Congress reassert its constitutional obligation to serve as a check and balance to an out-of-control executive branch. The House has started this process, but we cannot do it alone. One of the first resolutions passed by the House of Representatives since our pro-jobs and pro-growth majority came into office in 2011 was H.RES 72, which directed House committees to inventory and review existing, pending, and proposed regulations and orders from federal agencies, particularly with respect to their effect on jobs and economic growth. This has created a large number of committee investigations and oversight hearings on the executive branch's regulatory overreaches.

In March, the House passed a bill, which was signed into law, repealing the health-care law's onerous requirements for filing IRS 1099 forms on all payments of $600 or more. More recently, the House passed the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, which will prohibit the EPA from issuing regulations to require farmers and ranchers to obtain duplicative and costly permits for the use of pesticides under the Clean Water Act, since farmers and ranchers must already do so under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The House also passed legislation, the Energy Tax Prevention Act, to strip the EPA of its new-found authority to limit the emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gasses. Later this summer, the House will take up the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2011 (REINS) Act, of which I am a co-sponsor. This legislation would require Congress to approve every new rule proposed by the executive branch that has or will likely result in: an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; a major increase in costs or prices; or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or U.S. competitiveness. In other words, if Congress does not approve a major regulation proposed by the administration, then the rule will not take effect. Now, there are many more regulations that must be addressed that cost less than $100 million, but given the number of regulations in the pipeline, this is a good place to start.

We in the House hear you loud and clear and have a plan to start getting government out of your business and get Americans back to work. To get this plan implemented, we will continue to push hard and work with the Senate and the administration. Hopefully, they will finally work with us in the House. I know that Americans like you are demanding that the government stop placing more redundant, onerous and costly rules on folks and burdening small businesses with unnecessary mandates that only hinder our nation's number one job creators from creating much-needed jobs.

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