Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) delivered the following opening statement, as prepared, during a Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust hearing on "Reining in the Administrative State: Reclaiming Congress’s Legislative Power:"

"Mr. Chairman, at a time when the nation is reeling from multiple train derailments in Ohio alone, as well as increasingly harsh storms due to climate change, and an outbreak of avian flu that has led to the deaths of tens of millions of chickens in our food supply, I find it telling that we are using the first meeting of this subcommittee not to discuss how we can better serve the needs of all Americans, but rather how we can remove public health and safety safeguards for the sake of higher company profits. 

"And how do MAGA Republicans plan to advance their extreme agenda of protecting profits over people?  By trotting out the same old tired anti-health and safety legislation they have tried year after year whenever they control the House.

"We are only three months into the new Majority, and I guess they are already out of fresh ideas.  One of the bills we are examining today, the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2023” or the “REINS Act,” has been considered in every Congress in which Republicans have held a majority since 2012. 

"The REINS Act would grind the gears of rulemaking to a halt by requiring all major rules to be affirmatively approved by both Chambers of Congress.  A regulation would be blocked from being implemented if even one chamber declines to pass an approval resolution.  The goal of this legislation, quite simply, is to stop the regulatory process in its tracks, regardless of its impact on public health and safety.

The bill purports to give Congress control of the rulemaking process—but Congress already has this power and exercises it in a number of ways.  

"First, Congress can delegate authority to agencies with specificity, thus limiting the scope of the agency’s authority.  Second, it can impose restrictions on rulemaking through appropriations.  Third, it can influence rulemaking through oversight activities.  And if all of these measures are insufficient, we also have the blunt tool of the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress not only to overturn a rule, but also to bar the agency from ever passing a substantially similar rule.

"The REINS Act is not only redundant, but it also creates insurmountable procedural hurdles that would stall the approval of rules of major impact—rules that would be highly beneficial to the public’s health and safety.

"It is important to remember why we have regulations in the first place.  Congress sets broad policies, but we delegate authority to executive agencies because we do not have the expertise to craft technical regulations ourselves.  

"Who here knows how many parts per billion of arsenic should be allowed in our drinking water?  Is ten the proper amount?  Should it be five, or 15?

"None of us here knows the answer, but the dedicated professionals at our federal agencies—many of whom have decades of experience and vast technical expertise—undertake a careful process to protect our health and safety.  This process includes numerous procedural safeguards, including public notice and comment.

"Regulations ensure that our air is safe to breathe, our water is safe to drink, our food is safe to eat, and the life-saving medications we depend on are safe and effective.
  
"It means that the cars we drive and the planes we fly have proper safety mechanisms and that banks and credit card companies cannot take advantage of unsophisticated borrowers.  And when we do not properly regulate, sometimes it means that trains carrying dangerous chemicals can derail in our communities, putting thousands of people at risk.

"I feel much better about leaving regulatory decisions to the careful study of agency experts rather than Members of Congress who want to substitute their judgment, subject to the whims of politics.  

"Republicans also want to eliminate the Chevron doctrine, which calls for courts to give deference to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its statutory authority.  So, if it is not Members of Congress regulating our health and safety, I guess it will be federal judges.

"Republicans have spent decades waging an all-out assault on the regulatory process, trying to add hurdle after hurdle on the ability of agencies to issue regulations that protect public health and safety—regulations whose benefits consistently outweigh their cost, often by many multiples.

"If we want to improve the regulatory process, we would consider legislation such as the Stop Corporate Capture Act, which would bring more transparency and accountability to the rulemaking process.  But instead, the subcommittee has chosen to make their first order of business the dismantling and destruction of the regulatory process, regardless of the impact on public health and safety.

"This gives us a good idea of the priorities we should expect to see out of this new extreme Majority.  I hope they will reconsider this dangerous agenda, and I yield back my time."