Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. President, when I travel across the State of Montana,
from Alzada to Whitefish, I meet many different people and small
businesses. Although the diversity of thought in Montana is self-
evident to anyone who has spent time there, everyone agrees on one
thing. Regulation dictated by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. is
stifling entrepreneurial creativity, pushing opportunities overseas,
and killing jobs.

While many burdensome regulations are new, through adoption of laws
such as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act and the Affordable Care
Act, still many more have been on the books for years without review.
In an evolving and dynamic economy, regulators should, at the very
least, review their regulations on a periodic basis, allow for public
input, and eliminate any rules that are either obsolete or unnecessary.

Oftentimes, regulation has unintended consequences on Montana's small
businesses. In discussions about the harmful impacts of regulations
with Montanans, Vicki Bertelsen, who is the President of K Trucking
in Great Falls, said, ``Burdensome reporting requirements eat up too
many business hours every month. I would rather be growing my business
than sending redundant [and] antiquated paperwork to the government.''

With nearly 175,000 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations, it is
easy to understand how regulations are keeping people from getting back
to work.

That is why today I am introducing the Regulatory Examination Vital
for Improving and Evaluating Working Solutions, REVIEWS, Act. While
this bill recognizes that many regulations serve a noble purpose in
protecting consumers and natural resources, it also seeks to address a
structural deficiency in government agencies which allow obsolete and
unnecessary regulations to remain in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Because agencies operate on limited resources, they focus their efforts
on drafting new regulatory rules, rather than monitoring the rules that
already exist. While most agency employees are well-intentioned, this
structural deficiency places a greater emphasis on creating rules,
rather than monitoring the application and effectiveness of existing
rules, only to the detriment of Americans.

The REVIEWS Act will require agencies to periodically review each
regulation every ten years using the Notice and Comment process. This
requirement will ensure that obsolete regulations are recognized and
eliminated and that regulatory cost considerations are properly
evaluated. If a rule is not reviewed at least every 10 years, it cannot
be enforced in court. This requirement will provide public
accountability and force regulators to periodically examine existing
rules.

It is my hope that this common sense bill will ultimately reduce the
regulatory burden on Americans and allow them to freely pursue their
ends, independently of government intervention.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be
printed in the Record.

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