GOP lawmaker wants to put a leash on regulatory bureaucrats

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.C.) wants to slow the trillions of dollars in damage unelected bureaucrats do to the economy each year with a new resolution that would increase congressional scrutiny of regulations.

Rounds’ Regulation Sensibility Through Oversight Restoration (RESTORE) Resolution would create a Joint Select Committee tasked with reviewing existing regulations and new regulatory proposals with an eye toward reducing costs and overreach.

“The cost of federal overregulation affects every single American,” Rounds said of the proposal. “It is a hidden tax that for too long has been dictated by unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats in Washington rather than elected representatives who our founders intended to be the voice of the people. The regulators have essentially become a fourth branch of government and de facto legislative body. It’s regulation without representation, and it’s wrong.”

The bill would also require lawmakers to explore the possibility of establishing a permanent committee to review any future regulatory proposal with an estimated economic impact of $50 million or more.

An analysis of federal regulations out earlier this month from the Competitive Enterprise Institute found that federal regulations cost the U.S. economy nearly $2 trillion in 2014. At 77,687 pages, the 2014 Federal Register was the sixth largest in U.S. history.

Rounds contends a permanent regulatory review committee is necessary because “bureaucrats have essentially become the fourth branch of government and a de facto regulatory body” and are subject to too little oversight relative to their power.

According to the CEI report, the Departments of the Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Health and Human Services and Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency were responsible for nearly half (48 percent) of all new regulations in 2014. At present, a collection of 60 federal departments, agencies and commissions have 3,415 regulations in development “at various stages in the pipeline.”

“Congress should have the ability to look back at rules and decide whether or not they are appropriate,” Rounds told reporters Wednesday. “If the American public disagree (sic) with a bureaucrat, there is no recourse.”

Rounds’ legislation is co-sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), John Thune (R-S.D.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Shelley Moore-Capito (R-W.Va.).

The post GOP lawmaker wants to put a leash on regulatory bureaucrats appeared first on Personal Liberty.

from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/gop-lawmaker-wants-to-put-a-leash-on-regulatory-bureaucrats/

from WordPress https://toddmsiebert.wordpress.com/2015/05/20/gop-lawmaker-wants-to-put-a-leash-on-regulatory-bureaucrats/