Congress Should Use REINS Act to Reform Regulation

CEI released a new report today about the REINS Act, which would require Congress to vote on all new executive branch regulations costing more than $100 million per year. If you prefer a shorter version, Investor’s Business Daily also ran my op-ed about it today:

President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald J. Trump have something important in common. They both have a chance to help America's job creators out from under the crushing regulatory burden imposed by the federal government. First up, before President Obama leaves office, the Senate should pass the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act and send it to the president to sign.

Failing that, of course, the next Congress should work with President-elect Trump to pass REINS and other regulatory reforms.

Contrary to hyperbolic rhetoric opponents have been using, REINS is a modest reform. It wouldn’t touch the current $1.9 trillion regulatory state, or the 178,000-page Code of Federal Regulations. But it would give Congress the ability to prevent future agency misbehavior, at least for the one to two percent of regulations that typically meet REINS’ $100 million threshold. That goal is worth pursuing.

See also CEI’s press release, and of course, the full study is here.