Several conservative activist groups urged the White House Thursday to include language in a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement that would require congressional approval before any new domestic regulations costing more than $100 million annually take effect.
Similar language has already passed the House, but stalled in the Senate due to Democratic opposition. Attaching it to NAFTA could circumvent this, the groups argued, because legislation to reshape NAFTA would be a privileged bill that can more easily pass through Congress.
“Incorporating this package into NAFTA would allow you to submit it to the Senate under fast-track Trade Promotion Authority, protected from filibuster. The package would strengthen the core objectives of the NAFTA renegotiation by assuring a more stable, business-friendly regulatory environment, making it more attractive for companies to invest and create jobs in the United States,” the groups argued in a letter to President Tump.
Signatories to the letter included Americans for Tax Reform, the Club for Growth and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
The president would have to act fast to make this work, however. The current version of trade promotion authority, which allows Trump to negotiate privileged trade deals, expires on July 1, and it is unclear if the still-ongoing NAFTA renegotiations will be completed this year or ever. The White House has said it will seek a three-year extension of TPA.
The legislation, dubbed the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act,” passed the House early last year on a 237-187 vote, and a version of it with 38 Republican cosponsors has passed the the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. The full Senate has not voted on it, and it would face a certain filibuster from Democrats. Conservative groups have been lobbying for the legislation for years.
The groups saw no problem with including it inside NAFTA, and argued it would be a trade-related element of the deal.
“The package would strengthen the core objectives of the NAFTA renegotiation by assuring a more stable, business-friendly regulatory environment, making it more attractive for companies to invest and create jobs in the United States,” they wrote. “It would also permanently fix the regulatory process, cementing a Trump legacy of pro-growth regulatory reform and making another Obama-like regulatory assault on the U.S. economy nearly impossible.”
