Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. RATCLIFFE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2015.

I want to thank Chairman Chaffetz and Chairman Goodlatte for their hard work on this package of bills that will help push the government out of the way of the American people. I am especially grateful that the ALERT Act, which I introduced earlier this Congress, is included as title II of the bill.

The constituents that I represent in northeast Texas work hard every day to provide for their families and to contribute to their communities. But I can tell you from countless conversations that they are fed up with a Federal Government that has been invading every aspect of their lives. They are frustrated with unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats who create regulations that have the force of law, regulations that typically appear out of nowhere and bring with them huge price tags for the cost of compliance, often with little time to prepare and implement them.

In some cases, regulators are unforgiving to those who either can't or don't timely comply by imposing criminal penalties. Now, let's pause to think about that. Bureaucrats hammering otherwise law-abiding Americans with criminal penalties for regulatory violations at a time when the same administration is giving a free pass to millions of illegal aliens for breaking immigration laws, giving early release to tens of thousands of prisoners--violent criminals--and turning loose radical Islamic terrorists from Guantanamo. It is little wonder that my constituents are outraged.

And if it were up to this administration, the problem would get worse, not better. To underscore that point, we need only look at the Federal Register where agencies publish their mandates. That document contained 82,000 pages last year, meaning that this administration averaged more than 224 pages of new regulations every day of the year.

Americans have every right to demand to know what we are doing here in Congress to stop them from being crushed by this snowball of regulations.

Part of the answer should be that current law requires an update twice a year on Federal regulations being developed by Federal agencies. But guess what. Under this administration, these updates have either been late or not issued at all, and until now, there hasn't been a way to hold these unelected bureaucrats accountable.

My bill does just that. This bill forces the executive branch to make the American people aware of regulations that are coming down the track, and it prohibits any regulations from going into effect unless and until detailed information on the cost of that regulation--its impact on jobs and the legal bases for it--is made available to the public for at least 6 months.

Predictably, the President and others argue that this bill is too tough on regulators. But do you know what? I am here to fight for hardworking Americans, not for unelected Washington bureaucrats.

Mr. Chairman, ensuring that folks aren't steamrolled by new regulations should be a no-brainer. Transparency shouldn't be controversial, it shouldn't be optional, and it shouldn't be a partisan issue. That is why I was honored to introduce the ALERT Act and why I am grateful that it has been included in this bill.

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