Two Bills introduced to Stop the Over-Regulation of the American People

A great step in the right direction!

From Rep. Don Young --

Alaskan Congressman Don Young has introduced two bills aimed at curbing the overregulation of the American people.  Both H.R. 213, the Regulation Audit Revive Economy Act of 2011 (RARE Act of 2011), and H.R. 214, the Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis Creation and Sunset and Review Act of 2011, intend to not only review existing regulations but limit future ones as well.

“Quite often contentious regulations are issued through agencies, thus bypassing Congress and the voice of the people,” said Rep. Young.  “This legislative trick by the Executive Branch has contributed to our massive federal deficit and overall debt, while sometimes restricting small business growth.  Hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations are on the books, making the amount of red tape industry has to navigate almost paralyzing.  And more often than not, these regulations are written in convoluted legalese making them near impossible to understand.

“With the abundance of regulations already coming from legislation such as the health care bill and the inevitability of thousands more this year, it is incredibly important that we do this review sooner rather than later.  The excess of government has gotten out of hand, and with these bills I am calling on Congress to finally take a hard look at these overreaching rules that stifle American freedoms.”  

For the text of H.R. 213 click here
For the text of H.R. 214 click here

•   There are over 160,000 pages of regulations on the books right now

•   In 2005, the Small Business Administration study found that enforcing all the regulations costs $1.1 trillion per year (Americans paid less in income taxes in 2009)

•   3,500 new rules were adopted in 2009 alone at a cost of $13.6 billion, most of these new rules were a result of the outgoing Bush Administration

•   For the last couple of decades, the federal government has issued on average 4,000 new rules each year in the Federal Register

•   The Code of Federal Regulations in 2006 had 33 percent more pages than in 1980

•   Three years into the George W. Bush Administration, the cost of new regulations hit $4 billion.  One year into the Obama Administration, the cost of new regulations hit $4 billion.