The Obama administration this year has rushed through a record number of costly regulations to beat a Monday deadline and block Congress or the next president from reversing them, according to a new report.
American Action Forum reported Monday morning that the president and his team have OK’d $85 billion in new regulations that will cost American businesses and citizens 44 million more hours in paperwork. The per house cost of that red tape: $116.
In total, the administration has pushed through 44 major costly new regulations, the most in an presidential election year since Bill Clinton’s first term.
The reason: Every regulation set after today, May 16, the so-called “Regulation Day,” can be reversed by the next Congress and president.
“President Obama is moving into a phase where many significant regulatory decisions could be checked by the next Congress. To this point, he has happily vetoed attempts to undo controversial measures. Once Regulation Day passes, the next Congress will have an opportunity to review the administration’s Lame Duck rules. Whether they repeal these expensive regulations depends on the partisan composition of Congress, and a willing president,” said the author of the report, Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at the center-right economic forum.
Batkins is one of Washington’s top experts on regulation who has been watching the administration’s efforts and charting the costliest of those rules, including those still coming down the pike.
His report, provided in advance to Secrets, found that in April alone, as today’s deadline neared, the administration set in place nearly $40 billion worth of regulations, touching on Medicaid, financial institutions and tobacco.
“President Obama has already released 37 percent more significant regulations than any comparable period since 1996. Indeed, the administration has also approved three times as many economically significant rulemakings as were approved in 1996,” said Batkins.
“These regulatory costs essentially represent unchecked power for the president. Absent an intervention from the federal courts or a surprising supermajority in Congress, these rules will likely persist indefinitely,” he concluded.
The full report can be seen here.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
