Reining in Regulations and Helping College Students

Statement

It seems that there is no aspect of our lives that Washington is not trying to reach into and regulate. This week, I voted for the passage of eleven different bills that will reduce or prevent much of this overreach by the federal government. Each one of these pieces of legislation addresses a different example of how out of control the federal government has become in the past five years, and they offer ways for us to get back to the way the government was meant to operate - for the people, not against them. Below, you can read brief summaries of those bills.

We also passed the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act, H.R. 1911, that provides a market based solution to student loan interest rates that jumped from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent on July 1st. This bill is a good and fair solution to fixing interest rates for college students and tax payers. It is estimated to save the federal government $715 million over the next 10 years. It has passed both the House and Senate and is awaiting the President's signature to become law.

H.R. 2009, Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act --Would prevent the IRS from implementing any portion of Obamacare.

H.R. 367, Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act -- Requires Congressional approval of regulations that cost over $100 million.
H.R. 1582, Energy Consumers Relief Act -- Requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to estimate the total cost, impact on energy prices, and employment effects of any proposed energy-related rule that costs more than $1 billion.

H.R. 2711, Citizen Empowerment Act -- Ensures that individuals have the right to record their meetings and telephone exchanges with federal regulatory officials engaged in enforcement activities and requires that individuals be notified of such right.

H.R. 2579, Government Employee Accountability Act --Allows agencies to place employees on unpaid leave when they are under investigation for certain serious offense (Currently, senior federal officials under investigation for misconduct can only be put on paid leave).

H.R. 1660, Government Customer Service Improvement Act -- Requires agencies to adopt customer service standards and to use customer service feedback in agency and personnel reviews.

H.R. 313, Government Spending Accountability Act --Increases transparency with respect to taxpayer funded conferences, places limits on federal conferences, and requires agency head approval for the most expensive conferences.

H.R. 1541, Common Sense in Compensation Act -- Would place limits on the size of bonuses but also limit the number of senior agency employees who may receive bonuses in any given year.

H.R. 2565, Stop Targeting Our Politics IRS Act -- Would provide for the termination of employment of IRS employees who use their official position for political purposes.

H.R. 2769, Stop Playing on Citizen's Cash Act -- Imposes a moratorium on IRS conferences until the IG's recommendations are implemented.

H.R. 2768, The Taxpayer Bill of Rights - Amends the authorizing law that creates the position of IRS Commissioner, to make clear that it is the duty of the Commissioner to ensure that Internal Revenue Service employees are familiar with and act in accord with certain enumerated taxpayer rights, including a right to privacy and confidentiality.

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