Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOYCE of Ohio. Madam Chair, I rise today to offer an amendment to H.R. 277, the REINS Act. My amendment would insert a key provision included in my legislation, the LIBERTY Act, to ensure that economically significant guidance documents are subject to public notice and comment periods and much-needed congressional oversight.

While agency rules and regulations are subject to congressional oversight, guidance documents are not. As a result, the President can use guidance documents to sidestep congressional review and prevent Americans from weighing in on decisions made by their government.

Guidance documents were never intended to be used by Presidents to unilaterally enact their agenda, but today, that is precisely what we are seeing. For example, President Biden has attempted to use guidance documents to implement his $450 billion student loan bailout, Medicaid expansion, and to make it easier to deny future natural gas pipelines.

As a result, it has become clear that Congress must exert its authority to ensure that guidance documents cannot be used without any review or accountability. My amendment would guarantee just that.

The principle underpinning this amendment is simple: our government was founded by the people and for the people, and duly elected Representatives must be able to hold the executive branch to account.

No matter which party holds the White House, no President Republican or Democrat should be able to implement their agenda without first giving the American people the opportunity to weigh in on that agenda.

Madam Chair, that is why I ask that you support this amendment to strengthen the REINS Act and to provide Washington with a much-needed dose of transparency and accountability to the American people.

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Mr. JOYCE of Ohio. Madam Chairman, I thank the ranking member for his reply, and I appreciate his concern.

I would simply say this: all of us regardless of our political affiliation should be invested in reining in the power of the executive and holding the President accountable to the people. That is not happening in the status quo, which is why my amendment and the underlying bill is so important.

Guidance documents were never intended to allow bureaucrats to make sweeping decisions without any oversight, but that is what they have become.

Economically, significant guidance documents, like President Biden's student loan bailout, will have major effects on our country and must be subjected to proper oversight. That is what my amendment aims to achieve: a commonsense, good governance reform that keeps the American people in control of their government.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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