Senate Republicans have introduced a proposal to scrub away outdated
regulations and boost economic growth. Senate bill 1683, introduced last month by
Senators Orin Hatch (R-UT), Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) is called
SCRUB – Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily
Burdensome.
Federal regulations impose a $1.88 trillion burden on the economy. That amounts
to about $15,000 per household, which is 11 percent of the nation’s gross
domestic product and almost $500 billion more than personal and corporate
income tax revenue combined. SCRUB introduces a bipartisan, blue-ribbon
commission-based approach to reducing this burden on the U.S. economy.
Households, family farms and small businesses are hampered under the weight
of federal regulations, Ernst said.
“The SCRUB Act lays the foundation to find inclusive solutions to unlock the
drivers of our economy who have been stymied by unnecessary overregulation,
ease the burden on Americans’ pocketbooks, and open up new opportunities lost
by a cloud of overregulation,” Ernst said.
The Code of Federal Regulations contained 175,000 pages of regulations at
the end of 2014. However, a review of efforts by administrations of both
parties has consistently failed to yield meaningful reductions in the
regulatory burden, according to the senators.
The act sets a goal of at least a 15 percent reduction in costs of
regulations with a minimal reduction in the overall effectiveness of
regulations.
For any given regulation, the commission would be empowered to recommend
either immediate repeal or something called a “cut-go” process, whereby the
cost of new regulations would be offset by repealing old ones identified by the
commission. This allows speedy repeal where needed and a slower, staggered
approach for new regulations to replace old ones.
“Every president since Jimmy Carter
has acknowledged the need to get outdated regulations off the books,” Hatch
said. “Nevertheless, both Democrat and Republican administrations have failed
to make meaningful reductions in the unnecessary costs that red tape imposes on
the economy.”
Hatch added, “The SCRUB Act provides a powerful, fair, and proven means of
achieving this common-sense, bipartisan goal.”
Recommendations for repeal made by the commission would be presented as a
joint resolution to Congress, and if approved, those repeal recommendations
would become law.
The companion legislation in the House, introduced by Congressman Jason
Smith (R-MO), was approved by the House Judiciary Committee in March.