The REINS Act fits into a broader conservative narrative about government overreach. But it comes after a string of disasters in recent years that were tied to government regulators falling short, including:
- the financial crisis of 2008;
- the explosion of the Dixie Crystal sugar refinery of 2008 (killed 14 people);
- the peanut butter salmonella outbreak of 2008-09 (killed 9 people);
- the BP oil spill of 2010 (killed 11 people);
- the West Virginia mining accident of 2010 (killed 29 people).
There is no correlation between regulation and unemployment:
- The Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that there is hardly a correlation between regulations and unemployment. Their data show that very few layoffs are caused by government regulations/intervention, but rather a drop in business demand.
- Conservative Economist, Bruce Bartlett, who worked for Presidents Reagan and H.W. Bush, reported that deregulation does nothing to spur job growth. He called the correlation “nonsense.”
- The Wall Street Journal’s survey of business economists found, “The main reason U.S. companies are reluctant to step up hiring is scant demand, rather than uncertainty over government policies.”
- McClatchy Newspapers canvassed small businesses, asking them if regulation was a big problem and found no evidence that this was the case.
The REINS Act takes infringes upon our government’s separation of powers.
- REINS requires for every rule to be affirmatively approved by both Houses of Congress, within a 70-day window. If Congress fails to act within that period, the rule cannot take effect and is tabled until the next Congress, which takes critical discretion away from agencies.
- REINS would inappropriately inject political interference into a regulatory process that is supposed to be based on objective agency science and expertise. Federal agencies employ personnel with policy, scientific, and technical expertise to produce smart and sensible regulations. Allowing Congress to have the final say on regulations would make the regulatory process far more political, allowing lobbyists, special interest groups, and campaign contributions to shape a rule.
The REINS Act is nothing more than a back-door way of gutting enforcement of existing legislation by subjecting environmental protections, food and safety measures, and health care regulations to the political gridlock of Congress.
- REINS would codify a “delay, delay, delay” strategy for our regulatory process by slowing down the regulatory process on crucial public protections. For example, the recently implemented Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule establishing strong safety standards for the operation of cranes and derricks at construction sites took 10 years to finalize, notwithstanding the requests from both industry and workers regarding the urgent need for such a standard. REINS would allow nothing more than congressional inaction to block such a common-sense, non-controversial rule.
REINS Act would create unnecessary dysfunction and cause wasteful government spending
- Congress already has the power to review and veto an agency’s rule/regulation. Simply put, the REINS Act would make the dysfunction and obstructionism that plagues our political process even worse by giving one chamber of Congress veto power over any new significant public health and safety protection, no matter how non-controversial or common-sense it may be.
- It will only benefit those corporations that wish to game the system and evade safety standards while doing nothing to protect the American public.
