U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) has sponsored legislation that aims to eliminate costly and bureaucratic federal red tape by establishing a process for the review of rules and sets of rules.
The Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act of 2025, S. 648, would task the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a government group created by President Donald Trump, to work with federal agencies to identify and review federal rules that could be “scrubbed,” according to the senator.
“Burdensome and outdated regulations have railroaded Americans, and the only way out is to conduct a complete review,” Sen. Ernst, Senate DOGE Caucus chair, said on Feb. 21. “We need to scrub every old law on the books to identify the red tape that needs to be slashed.”
Under S. 648, such rules would include those that are likely to impose an annual cost on the economy of $100 million or more; a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state, local, or tribal government agencies, or geographic regions; significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on the ability of United States-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic and export markets; or significant impacts on multiple sectors of the economy, according to the bill’s text.
The Foundation for Government Accountability and the Competitive Enterprise Institute support the proposed bill, which has been referred for consideration to the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.