By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
Americans spent $1.89 trillion to comply with
federal regulations last year. Amazingly, that
figure exceeds the combined individual and
corporate income taxes the IRS expects to
collect for the 2015 tax year, $1.82 trillion.
This hidden tax amounts to nearly $15,000 per
U.S. household, according to the Competitive
Enterprise Institute.
Our economic recovery has been hampered by the
onslaught of regulations from President Obama.
But presidents from both parties have used
regulations to skirt Congress and burden
families and business. In 1960, the Code of
Federal Regulations was about 23,000 pages. It
now exceeds 175,000 pages!
Before I came to Congress, I spent four years in
the Idaho House, where the Legislature reviews
every new regulation. It’s tedious but important
work that helps keep Idaho a good place to do
business and raise a family.
That experience has made regulatory reform a top
priority. With the 114th Congress drawing to a
close, we can claim some successes in the past
two years but much remains undone.
The good news includes helping veterans,
particularly in rural areas like Idaho, get
access to health care. Two months after a bill I
cosponsored was introduced to apply a
common-sense travel standard, the VA relented
and made it easier to receive non-VA care at VA
expense.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives dropped a rule banning ammunition for
the most popular rifle in America – the AR-15 –
after a public outcry and a letter I cosigned
with 235 colleagues.
The courts have stepped up, blocking Obama on
several major actions: his executive amnesty for
about 5 million immigrants in the country
illegally; the “Waters of the United States”
rule that threatened to cripple agriculture; and
the Clean Power Plan estimated to raise
electricity costs by $12 billion over eight
years.
Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, a leading
liberal, charges his former student, President
Obama, with using the EPA to abuse the
Constitution. “Burning the Constitution of the
United States – about which I care deeply –
cannot be part of our national energy policy,”
Tribe told a House Committee.
To fight these attacks Congress must reclaim its
constitutional authority. Too often, we settle
for vague legislation and leave the details up
to the executive branch. We must be disciplined
in every law we write.
Finally, we must go beyond battling the latest
overreaching regulation and reform the whole
process. This week I joined in House passage of
the Regulatory Integrity Act, which bars
agencies from lobbying for their regulations –
as the EPA did in 2014 by joining the Sierra
Club in a social media campaign.
I am a cosponsor of the REVIEW Act, approved
last week in the Judiciary Committee and
expected to be on the House floor next week. It
would implement an automatic stay of any
regulation with annual costs over $1 billion
when the rule is challenged in court, delaying
or blocking huge compliance costs until the
courts decide if a regulation is lawful. Last
year, for example, the Supreme Court invalidated
EPA’s 2012 mercury rule – but only after power
generators were forced to comply with annual
costs estimated at $9.6 billion.
Earlier, the House passed another bill I
cosponsored, the Regulations from the Executive
in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. REINS requires
Congressional approval of rules with costs over
$100 million, based on economic impact, consumer
costs, job loss and other factors. In the Obama
years alone, there have been 600 such
regulations.
Taken together, these are significant steps to
help consumers and our economy. Even more
important, they demonstrate how Congress can
hold the permanent bureaucracy accountable and
reaffirm the power to write law. That is a
principle at the very heart of self-governance. |
