With the battle over government regulation set to take center stage in the House of Representatives next week, President Obama on Tuesday sent Congress a eye-popping list of expensive new rules he wants to implement, including new limits on smog that could cost up to $90 billion to put in place.
In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, Obama described seven pending regulations that he said could cost more than $1 billion each to implement. Boehner had asked for the list in an Aug. 26 letter that cited a 15 percent increase in proposed new regulations by Obama’s administration since last year.
Obama, in his letter, defended his regulatory record. He noted that the cost of “economically significant” rules that have been proposed were higher at the end of the Bush administration than they have been in the first two years of his administration and that the benefits of his new rules exceeded the costs “by tens of billions of dollars.”
Nonetheless, when Congress returns next week Republicans will immediately begin pushing for legislation that would block Obama’s proposed regulations, which the GOP claims would destroy jobs and damage the economy.
The smog rule, expected by the end of this year, would establish more restrictive standards for ozone levels and is one of the regulations in the GOP’s cross hairs.
“I expect the Energy and Commerce Committee to act swiftly to prevent its implementation in order to protect American jobs,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in a memo to fellow Republicans on Monday.
Republicans also plan to consider a bill that would require congressional approval of any proposed government regulation that generated significant financial cost.
In addition to new ozone regulations, Obama notified Boehner that six other pending rules would each have at least a $1 billion impact on the economy, half of them issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the rest by the Department of Transportation.
Among the most expensive new EPA regulations is one requiring tougher emissions standards for coal and oil-fired power plants, which Obama estimated would cost about $10 billion.
The Department of Transportation’s costliest proposed rule has a price tag of $2 billion. It would require commercial bus and truck companies to install data recorders in their vehicles to help ensure drivers aren’t logging too many hours without a break.
Boehner noted Tuesday that the total cost of Obama’s seven proposed regulations could exceed $100 billion and he’s now requesting a full cost estimate for 219 other proposed rules that are expected to have a significant impact on the economy.
“At a time like this, with our economy struggling to create jobs, it’s misguided for the federal government to be imposing so many new rules with such enormous costs, even when some of those rules may be well-intentioned,” Boehner said.
