Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Doug Collins (R-Ga.) introduced legislation on Thursday to establish a new process for the elimination and reporting of the economic costs of existing and new federal regulations.
The National Regulatory Budget Act would also provide for a regulatory budget process where Congress would establish caps for each federal agency, according to a press release.
“Radical regulations strangle small business and increase the costs for hard-working taxpayers,” Scalise said. “This much-needed legislation makes unelected bureaucrats think twice before proposing job-killing rules and regulations by increasing transparency and accountability. If our economy is ever to recover from six years of the president’s failed economic policies, we must rein in the out of control costs of this administration’s radical regulations. I applaud Congressman Collins for joining me in introducing this bill and for being a leader in the House on holding this administration accountable.”
The bill would establish the Office of Regulatory Analysis (OAR). The OAR would be required to provide an annual regulatory analysis of federal rules for the upcoming fiscal year and an estimated cost on the economy.
The legislation would also create a national regulatory budget to allow Congress to set a cap on the total economic cost of new federal regulations to be implemented in the coming fiscal year. Congress would set caps on regulatory costs allowed by individual agencies, as part of the bill.
Under the legislation, all newly proposed regulations would have to receive an OAR estimate before implementation. Agencies that fail to comply with OAR would be subjected to a 0.5 percent reduction in their appropriation based on their previous budget amount.