In his final State of the Union, President Obama declared his belief that “a thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy,” which he paired with the assertion that “there are outdated regulations that need to be changed and there’s red tape that needs to be cut.” Hearing these words was less a cause […]
Mr. Smith Takes on the Regulatory State
By a 245 to 174 margin, the U.S. House this week passed the Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act of 2015, also known as the SCRUB Act. The legislation seeks to address the perpetual growth of federal regulations, as federal agencies issue new rules each year, but rarely scrap the old […]
Three Steps for Reasserting Congress in ...
Each year, federal agencies produce more regulations. These regulations affect nearly every aspect of our lives, yet are never voted on by Congress. This is a remarkable and troubling development for the separation of powers. Regulations have the effect of law. Thus, Congress’ mostly hands-off approach to regulation has ceded a huge amount of its lawmaking authority to the executive branch, […]
Federal Agencies Missed 1,400 Regulatory...
In the waning days of 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. The statute made myriad changes to postal law and tasked the Postal Regulatory Commission with a big job: issuing regulations to establish a new system for pricing the postage everyone pays to send mail and parcels. To its credit, the PRC […]
5 Reasons to Support the REINS Act
The House is likely to vote this week on H.R. 427, the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act, also known as the REINS Act. Introduced by Rep. Todd Young, R-Ind., the bill would require Congress and the president to approve major regulations (those with an economic effect of $100 million or more) […]
Free America’s Beverage Markets!
It is difficult to understate just how politicized America’s alcoholic beverage markets are. And I say “markets” because the country does not have a single nationwide market. Rather, it has markets far too numerous to count. These markets are the product of various regulatory regimes across federal, state, county and municipal levels of government. The […]
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