Sens. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced a bill on Tuesday to streamline, consolidate and repeal burdensome and costly government regulations.
The Regulatory Improvement Act of 2013 would reduce compliance costs, encourage growth and innovation, and improve competitiveness. The bipartisan legislation would require the creation of a Regulatory Improvement Commission to gather broad public feedback about which regulations are outdated, duplicative or inefficient. The goal of the commission would be to complement existing processes and create a mechanism that incorporates wide stakeholder input.
“Missourians and job creators nationwide are burdened with too many confusing, inefficient, and duplicative government regulations that continue to stifle economic growth,” Blunt said. “Americans need more economic certainty, and this bill is a step in the right direction to streamline regulatory burdens and help job creators, entrepreneurs and innovators grow and hire more people.”
Under the proposed legislation, the commission would submit to Congress a report containing regulations in need or streamlining, consolidation or repeal. Both houses of Congress would then consider the report and relevant congressional committees could review the commission’s report but not amend the recommendations.
“Business owners and entrepreneurs in Maine regularly tell me that the single greatest obstacle to their economic growth continues to be overly-burdensome regulations, but as thousands of more rules are promulgated every year, Congress isn’t taking any serious steps to address the mountain of regulations that already exist,” King said. “Our legislation would move that process forward by establishing an independent commission to identify and review outdated rules and so that Congress can begin to deliver regulatory relief to our nation’s job creators.”