House brings REINS Act to the floor

“H.R. 10 really does rein in these burdens,” Nugent said. “Instead of letting the White House decide what the regulation should be, only allowing Congress to disapprove an executive’s action, H.R. 10 flips the current system on its head.”

{mosads}He said the laws Congress writes tend to be overly broad, which gives the administration too much say in how to implement them. He said the bill would help inject Congress back into that process.

“It says that Congress, not only does it provide the legislative intent, but it also provides the legislative oversight as the rule comes back if it’s a major rule that’s going to cost over $100 million to our businesses and citizens of this country.”

As they have with other bills aimed at easing the federal regulatory process, Democrats today said the government is not the problem and that other legislation that would help create jobs is needed.

“The majority seems to think that if they repeat their message that big government is destroying jobs enough times, it will become true,” House Rules Committee ranking member Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) said. “But economic surveys and economists from the left, right and center say it’s all a made-up argument.”

Slaughter quoted Bruce Bartlett, an economist in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, who said Republican arguments in favor of easing the regulatory burden would not create jobs and amount to “political opportunism.”

Members of the House were debating the rule for the bill and were expected to vote on the rule sometime Tuesday afternoon.