Directing Committees to Review Regulations from Federal Agencies: House of Representatives

Floor Speech

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I thank the gentleman from California for yielding.

I do rise in support of H.R. 72.

When the framers of the Constitution started writing, they began article I, section 1, with a simple and clear statement: "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress.'' After a great debate, the priority concern was the possibility that some other entity other than Congress would attempt to exercise legislative powers or compel their will on American citizens.

If laws could be made by someone who has no accountability, they could create any rule based on their own preferences and force unchecked spending on the will of their fellow citizens without accountability. This is an unfunded regulatory mandate.

It is my concern that in the race to regulate, we have moved from regulating American business to running State and local governments and have made them, in effect, Federal Government extension employees charged with regulating all aspects of public and private business. Every stage of business is now regulated, from how to interview an applicant to how to fire an employee.

Government paperwork abounds. Every company needs compliance officers and attorneys just to make sure they are running their business based on the preferences of someone from some agency they have never even heard of. That is not real job creation. American companies want to produce products and services, not hire de facto government employees. We need real job growth.

It is time for Congress to assume its responsibility. If there is a grievous regulation, it shouldn't be EPA's fault, HHS's fault or even the executive branch's fault. It is ours.

Let me give you some examples of these unfunded mandates in my own home State of Oklahoma. The City of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, is currently drowning under a new EPA requirement to filter the storm water. That is correct, filtering the rainwater.

The City of Bethany, Oklahoma, spent over a quarter of a million dollars in 1987 to put in two water wells, only to be required a few years later to take them out by EPA because of their wastewater. Then EPA changed their wastewater requirements in 2006 and cost the City of Bethany over $9 million. The street signs in Bethany must also change to a new type of reflective material to meet new DOT regulations, costing the city who knows how much.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation has to go through millions of dollars of hoops to tear down an old bridge to replace it with a new bridge in the exact same spot. They have to navigate the Clean Water Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and many more, while people drive over an old, deteriorating bridge.

I will tell you, I will be the first to promote wheelchair ramps on sidewalks, but Federal interpretation of ADA to construct accessible curb ramps at intersections and other locations has been invoked where no connecting sidewalks even exist. In Oklahoma City, where I live, such a wholesale directive results in curb ramps that terminate in adjacent vacant lots, to a ditch, embankments, and sometimes straight into a light pole. The desire to do the right thing sometimes leaves no room for exercising common sense.

We are regulating common sense out of Federal, State and local governments, and we are costing State and local taxpayers millions in unfunded mandates.

Sometimes our regulations don't cost money but they do cost trust in the relationship between citizens and their Federal Government.

Last Christmas, a community bank in Oklahoma was told by a Federal regulator that their employees had to take off the buttons that said ``Merry Christmas, God is with us,'' and remove the scripture verse announcement on their board because it might cause someone to feel discriminated against that walked into the bank. This is a privately owned business in America.

Every person in that community has lost trust with the commonsense leadership of the Federal Government because we have allowed unchecked regulation. The assumption that Federal agencies are the only people who care about clean water, clean air, fair business practice, et cetera, is arrogant and misinformed. I don't know anyone who loves the air, water and land in Oklahoma more than Oklahomans, and I am confident that is true for other States as well.

We must take a serious look at unfunded mandates and regulations. We need to hear the cry of our cities, counties and States where they say please stop the flood of regulations. They want two things: predictability and clearly defined limited scope.

This is a bipartisan issue. We have common agreement with the other members of my subcommittee, and we will immediately take this up next Tuesday in our first subcommittee hearing.

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