Federal rules and regulations cost the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion each year and dictate nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives — from the food they can eat to the types of cars they can drive.
But while Americans can vote out their representatives in Congress for enacting harmful legislation, there is no similar accountability mechanism for unelected agency bureaucrats who implement bad rules.
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The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act would change that. The legislation would return lawmaking power to Congress and create a more accountable government by requiring major agency rules to gain congressional approval before implementation.
Federal agencies have been usurping Congress’s exclusive lawmaking authority for decades. Since 1980, agencies have issued almost 2,000 major regulations, defined as regulations that have an economic impact greater than $100 million. Last year alone, federal agencies issued more than 3,000 new regulations — enough to fill 106,109 pages.
It’s estimated that regulations cost businesses $12,800 per employee each year, with even larger impacts on small businesses. The economy also faces unquantifiable losses as a result of regulations, such as reduced competition and prohibitive barriers to entry for would-be entrepreneurs.
These costs are then passed on to American families in the form of higher prices, fewer job opportunities, and lower wages. It’s estimated that regulations cost the average household more than $16,000 annually or 6% of average household income.
Congress does little to check the executive branch’s constant barrage of rules and regulations, perhaps because it has become politically convenient to blame unsuccessful rulemaking on the administrative state. But that convenience has come at a steep cost to America’s economic prosperity and global competitiveness.
The stakes are too high for Congress to continue to let unelected executive branch bureaucrats usurp its lawmaking authority. The REINS Act would restore Congress’s role as the branch of government responsible for writing the laws, and it would give workers and businesses their voices back in the process.
The legislation requires Congress to approve all major agency rules before they take effect. It also requires congressional approval of all major agency guidance — guidance that has an economic impact greater than $100 million. This would put Congress back in the driver’s seat and ensure that any rule with an outsize economic impact would have to go through the proper scrutiny.
Under the bill, repealing expensive or onerous rules would require no congressional oversight, ensuring that deregulation can happen as quickly as possible.
The REINS Act goes a step further by giving the people more power to hold regulators accountable. If passed, American citizens would have the power to sue to prevent the enforcement of major agency rules that have not secured Congress’s approval. It also provides a new defense for citizens: They can argue that a reasonable person would not have known their actions were illegal if the underlying law did not clearly state the rule or regulation in question.
State legislatures around the country have already taken steps to rein in unaccountable bureaucracies and create a more transparent rulemaking process that is accountable to the people. My home state of Kentucky voted to enact its own version of the REINS Act earlier this year to remove barriers to economic growth for all Kentuckians.
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It’s time for Congress to do the same for the rest of America. The unchecked power of federal agencies has eroded the constitutional balance envisioned by our Founders and imposed a heavy burden on families. Congress cannot continue to abdicate its legislative responsibilities while unelected bureaucrats manipulate the economy with impunity.
The REINS Act offers a clear and necessary path forward, restoring accountability, reining in regulatory overreach, and putting lawmaking authority back where it belongs: in the hands of the people’s elected representatives.
Rand Paul is the junior United States senator from Kentucky.
