Providing for Consideration of H.R. Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Searching for and Cutting Regulations That Are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Georgia, a fellow member of the Rules Committee, for yielding me time to speak on this important topic. I am very pleased to be able to contribute to this conversation.

Mr. Speaker, as you probably know, I am a farmer. I can tell you that growing crops, cultivating crops, can teach you a lot about a responsible regulatory process. That may sound like a strange statement, but let me just say I primarily grow hops and grapes, two crops that require a trellis system. Neither of these crops would be successfully grown without a good, strong trellis system that gives them structure, direction, and support. However, on the flip side, if the trellises aren't constructed properly, if they are not maintained and kept in good working order, the crop growth would be affected. It would be stunted, and production in the end would suffer.

Our regulatory process is very similar, Mr. Speaker. Congress passes laws intended to provide a progrowth structure for our economy. Regulatory agencies build out and fill in the details based on the directions from us, from Congress. However, sometimes agencies provide regulations that can significantly harm people and harm businesses and the jobs they are supposed to be supporting. Many times these regulations exceed or are in contravention to the discretion or authority provided by Congress. Many times it seems as if the regulators write these regulations for the sake of regulations with little regard for the consequences to those that are forced to comply.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this rule and the underlying legislation, as these bills will provide Congress and the American public with new tools to ensure that regulations truly have the public's best interest in mind and do not hinder economic expansion and growth.

For example, H.R. 712 will prevent what are called the sue and settle tactics that are used to circumvent the normal rulemaking process. It has been well documented that, on numerous regulations, the administration has intentionally dragged its feet and failed to propose a regulation in a timely fashion. So what happens then, they can be sued and ultimately settle on the terms decided solely by the court, by the administration, and by the plaintiff.

This tactic has removed the cost-benefit analysis required for many economically significant regulations. But more importantly, it has eliminated stakeholder engagement in the regulatory process as well as the public's right to comment on dozens of regulations with compliance costs totalling in the hundreds of millions to the billions of dollars.

This legislation also includes other commonsense measures, such as requiring agencies to post on the Internet in plain language 100-word summaries detailing what a regulation does. Few individuals or small businesses have either the time or the fleets of lawyers needed to pore over hundreds of pages of regulations and be expected to comment or comply.

I was also proud to cosponsor H.R. 1155, which this rule also provides for consideration. It is estimated that the current Federal code spans more than 175,000 pages. This important legislation will enact a commission to review the regulatory code and make recommendations on which regulations are necessary, which are overlapping, and which are duplicative or obsolete. Wouldn't it be a refreshing change, Mr. Speaker, if, for once, Washington, D.C., could actually cut red tape instead of creating new barriers to economic growth?

Too often regulations have begun to have costs that far outweigh their benefits, seriously harming those they were intended to regulate, help, and protect. Regulations resulting from sue and settle are often impossible to comply with, and the public is removed from the rulemaking process. We can and we must do better. These commonsense reforms in H.R. 712 and H.R. 1155 will help reverse the trend of regulations stunting growth and stalling production and restore the progrowth-oriented structure and direction that Congress has intended.

Again, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

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