Controversial agency rule-making bill advances in House

The All Economic Regulations are Transparent (ALERT) Act of 2015 advanced Tuesday in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee along party lines, wi...

A controversial measure to require agencies to publish the estimated costs of proposed rules well in advance passed the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, despite some Democrats’ claims that the measure was akin to putting red tape on the red tape.

The All Economic Regulations are Transparent (ALERT) Act of 2015 advanced Tuesday along party lines.

The Republican measure would require agencies to post notices online for at least six months before finalizing rules.  Agencies also would have to submit to the White House monthly updates on ongoing rulemaking. The reports would have to include estimated costs of the new regulations.

Americans, Congress and business owners deserve more notice of regulations that could impact them, said Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), one of the bill’s backers.

“It’s important for us to have a voice,” he said, adding that he was perturbed at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ apparent willingness to keep the public and Congress away from the rule-making process.

“This bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the committee’s ranking Democrat. He said it would give agencies a “perverse incentive to promulgate rules outside of public notice” rather than submit to the burdens of doing additional reports and extending public-notice times.

The bill is an effort to block or delay regulations, where “delay can mean death, harm, or other consequences we could’ve avoided,” he said, citing the example of miners with black-lung disease waiting for regulations from the Labor Department.

Democrats also took issue with the legislation’s omission of any requirement to report proposed rules’ benefits, such as those that would offset the costs.

“When we say you can’t take into account the benefits, I think that destroys the picture and taints the process,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said.

Meadows noted that the President could shorten the six-month notice period through an executive order, if the regulation pertained to public health, national security, trade agreements or criminal activity.

The government finalizes more than 3,000 regulations a year, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The bill already passed the House Judiciary Committee. It was the only contentious measure at the committee’s business meeting. 

Other legislation approved by the panel includes a bill to let inspectors general subpoena former federal employees and federal contractors, a measure to establish a commission to study the use of government data in program decisions and a bill to ensure new federal websites take steps to secure individuals’ personally identifiable information.

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