Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, on Monday outlined a sweeping policy agenda for the new session of Congress beginning in January.
The set of ideas, entitled, “GOP Solutions: A Compilation of Policy Proposals from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,” show a broad agenda, ranging from reforming entitlement programs that are typically treated as a political third-rail to revising internet policy. Here are a few highlights:
Manufacturing
Upton hopes to revive American manufacturing jobs that were lost during the Great Recession.
Regulations on the private sector cost the economy over 10 billion man-hours of paperwork every year, according to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Too many regulations are adopted without analyzing the economic costs versus benefits. Business operators often complain about the difficulty of keeping up with always-changing regulations.
Committee staff also emphasized the need for corporate tax reform to make manufacturing easier. The high tax rate on United States businesses does more than siphon profits away from reinvestment, it puts them at a disadvantage against foreign competitors. U.S.-based businesses have many competitors around the world that receive better treatment from their governments. Punishing foreign competitors with tariffs would hurt U.S. consumers. Ensuring the corporate tax code is in line with competitors would make a more equal playing field for all.
Medicare
The number of Medicare enrollees is expected to continue climbing in the decades to come, even as resources for enrollees dwindle. A paper co-authored by Upton and several other Congressmen says increased enrollment and expenditures are making Medicare insolvent. Also responsible for the funding crisis is “a 1960’s era old-fashioned and complicated benefit design.”
The private health insurance coverage system has changed considerably since Medicare was created in the 1960s. Yet, Medicare’s benefit design has not been updated to a system that coordinates hospital and physician services. A proposed redesign would aim to streamline the benefit payment system and encourage more rational spending.
Medicaid
Upton and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, wrote a paper in May 2013 on the need for Medicaid reform. Medicaid was initially designed to help Americans who were worst-off, but the program has been extended far beyond its original scope. The latest enrollment data from the Kaiser Family Foundation show over 68 million Medicaid enrollees, representing more than one in five Americans. “The data show that the size and costs of today’s Medicaid are compromising the program’s mission,” Upton and Hatch wrote.
Upton and Hatch primarily hope to improve the quality of care enrollees receive. Based off the success of welfare reform in the 1990s, they propose to give states more power to reform Medicaid as they see fit.
Importantly, this would be coupled with necessary fiscal reforms. Upton and Hatch propose per capita caps on how much federal money can be spent for each Medicaid beneficiary. Over the past two decades, a per capita cap on Medicaid spending has enjoyed bipartisan support, including former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden while he was still in the Senate.
Keystone XL
The debate over, and eventual construction of, the Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s shows why the Keystone XL pipeline should be approved, according to committee staff. The Alaska Pipeline “has provided the nation with billions of barrels of oil and thousands of jobs since it opened,” Committee staff wrote in a March 2013 paper.
Similar to Keystone XL, the Alaska Pipeline had to endure years of bureaucratic delays and environmental studies before it was eventually approved. Committee staff say Keystone XL has now been studied even more thoroughly than the Alaska Pipeline was before Congress approved its construction.
Keystone XL is clearly in the national interest and should be approved. Not only that, but Congress should reform the federal approval process so that other projects are not unnecessarily delayed in the future.
Natural Gas
The exportation of liquid natural gas is excessively difficult in the U.S., with a cumbersome and long approval process from the Department of Energy required. Reform of this process would benefit the U.S. not only economically, but also diplomatically, Committee staff argue in a February 2014 paper.
A Department of Energy report found that exporting natural gas would benefit consumers and the overall economy. The economic benefits of natural gas exports increase as exports rise. As for diplomatic benefits, “By becoming a natural gas exporter, the U.S. can supplant the influence of other exporters like Russia and Iran while strengthening ties with our allies and trading partners around the world,” Committee staff wrote.
Before America’s energy revolution ends, the Department of Energy needs to speed up its reviews of export applications. Otherwise, the U.S. will miss out on a unique economic and diplomatic opportunity.
As the Committee begins its work in 2015, it will enjoy working with the first fully-Republican-controlled Congress since 2006. The conservative reforms outlined here are more likely to reach President Obama’s desk in 2015-16 than they were at any prior point during his presidency, though whether any of them can become law while he’s still in charge is another question.
