WASHINGTON, DC – Concerned by the alarming quantity and nature of burdensome, job-killing – and in many cases absurd– regulations pouring out of the administration, U.S. Senator Pat Roberts today introduced a bill to enforce the president’s executive order directing agencies of the federal government to review regulations to ensure they don’t harm the economy.

 “I applaud the president for recognizing his administration is inflicting volumes of regulations upon ordinary Americans that occasionally border on the ridiculous. Now let’s give this executive order teeth. Let’s make it law. Let’s really look at the size and scope of our government and return it to its role as a partner in America’s success rather than an impediment to it.”

 Senator Roberts’ bill, the “Regulatory Responsibility for our Economy Act,” strengthens and codifies the president’s Executive Order from January 18, 2011, to ensure the president’s order is carried out to review, modify, streamline, expand, or repeal those significant regulatory actions, that are duplicative, unnecessary, burdensome, or would have significant economic impacts on Americans.

  On January 18, 2011, the president published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on his commitment to reviewing regulations. “We have preserved freedom of commerce while applying those rules and regulations necessary to protect the public against threats to our health and safety and to safeguard people and businesses from abuse,” the president said. But he also noted that, “sometimes those rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business—burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs.”

 “I couldn’t agree more.” Senator Roberts said. “However, I am concerned by what appear to be loopholes in the executive order’s language exempting critical regulations in the new health care law, and financial regulatory reform laws that are the very regulations that touch our everyday lives.”

 At issue are media reports that many of the agencies claim are not subject to the president’s regulatory review because they already meet all of the commitments in the executive order.

 Senator Roberts’ bill closes this loophole by ensuring sub-agencies comply with the review. The legislation also ensures that regulations put forth by the administration consider the economic burden on American businesses, ensure stakeholder input and promote innovation. It also closes other existing loopholes that the administration has been using to bypass stakeholder input on regulations.

 Senator Roberts is also particularly concerned with the section of the executive order that states: “In applying these principles, each agency is directed to use the best available techniques to quantify anticipated present and future benefits and costs as accurately as possible. Where appropriate and permitted by law, each agency may consider (and discuss qualitatively) values that are difficult or impossible to quantify, including equity, human dignity, fairness, and distributive impacts.”

 “Here the order is actually telling agencies to consider the difficult or impossible when reviewing regulations,” Roberts said, “Given their focus on qualitatively assessing equity and human dignity, surely we can make every effort to consider the impact on our struggling economy and pass my bill to make this regulatory review yield real results.”

 The following are examples of some of Senator Roberts’ key concerns with regulations:

• As of January 3, 2011, less than six months after the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law, regulators have issued over 1,000 pages of regulatory proposals and over 360 pages of final rules. Many more pages of regulations, upwards of 5,000, are expected.
• Regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Labor and Treasury, have resulted in the child-only insurance market effectively disappearing in 20 states.
• Last year, the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyard Administration (GIPSA) published a proposed rule that would change long-standing rules governing production and marketing of livestock. This proposed rule goes far beyond what was intended in the last Farm Bill. A number of private economic studies show the loss of gross domestic product is in excess of $1 billion - much more costly than the $100 million threshold required for an economic analysis to be completed. Unfortunately, an economic analysis has yet to be completed.

 Senator Roberts is ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and is a member of the Finance Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Rules Committee and the Ethics Committee.

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