Latest news with #REINSAct
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Key Mike Lee proposal stripped from Trump budget bill
WASHINGTON — A proposal to expand congressional control over federal policy decisions was stripped from President Donald Trump's massive tax bill over the weekend despite a push from GOP leaders to include the language. The provision, a slimmed-down version of Sen. Mike Lee's REINS Act, sought to implement new requirements for federal agencies, subjecting proposed agency actions to be approved by Congress before they can take effect. The statute primarily targeted policies that increase revenue and would allow for review of past rules already approved by agencies. However, that measure was removed from the bill's language on Sunday by the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan adviser who must evaluate each provision in the tax bill to ensure it adheres to the strict rules of reconciliation. Through the budget reconciliation process, Republicans can circumvent Democratic opposition and prevent a filibuster to expedite the passage of certain legislation and go around the minority party by enacting key pieces of their agenda with a simple majority vote. There are certain rules that dictate how often reconciliation can be used, and the procedure can only be utilized to advance budget-related legislation such as taxes, spending and the debt limit. Once a budget reconciliation blueprint is finalized, it then only requires a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass. However, the parliamentarian ruled that the current language related to Lee's REINS Act did not adhere to those guidelines, making it ineligible for simple-majority passage. However, Lee could still adjust the language before the package reaches the Senate floor, which GOP leaders hope to accomplish by the end of this week. Lee has pushed for years to pass the REINS Act, which would require regulations with an economic impact of $100 million or more to be approved by Congress, giving lawmakers more control over how agencies operate. Under current law, Congress has the authority to pass resolutions that nullify certain agency regulations if those rules are considered to be harmful. However, the REINS Act would seek to ensure that most proposed regulations must first be cleared by Congress before it takes effect, giving lawmakers the ability to halt certain regulations if they disapprove. Some version of the REINS Act has been introduced in every Congress since 2009. The House has managed to pass several iterations of the bill but the proposal has never managed to pass the Senate, where it would typically need 60 votes to be approved. And to get enough votes to support it, Lee is suggesting to somehow attach the bill to the reconciliation package, which would only require 50 votes in the Senate. Lee has not yet publicly responded to the parliamentarian's ruling, and his office did not respond to a request for comment by the Deseret News.
Axios
23-06-2025
- Business
- Axios
Trump's "big, beautiful bill:" What's in, what's out
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough dealt big-time blows to GOP priorities this weekend when she ruled that chunks of President Trump's "big, beautiful bill" violate the chamber's rules. Why it matters: The so-called "Byrd bath" rulings further complicate Majority Leader John Thune's path to passing the mega tax and spending cut package by the White House's July 4 deadline. What's out: A provision to pass food aid costs on to states by forcing them to share expenses for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Proposed restrictions on the ability of federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions and temporary restraining orders. A GOP proposal to hollow out funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a plan to slash pay for staff at the Federal Reserve. An effort to repeal an EPA rule limiting air pollution emissions of passenger vehicles. A provision allowing project developers to bypass judicial environmental reviews if they pay a fee. A modified version of the REINS Act, which would increase congressional power over major regulations. It was a top priority for Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Republican leadership. Language to expand state and local officers' ability to carry out immigration enforcement and limits on grant funding for " sanctuary cities." What's in: A Republican proposal to place a what's now being branded a "temporary pause" on state laws regulating AI. But the measure has some GOP opponents, including Sens. Josh Hawley (Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), who could still seek to strike it. Hawley's bill that provides compensation to victims of radiation — a long-time priority of his. What to watch: The AI provision is just one example of the intra-party disputes that will need to get settled for Thune to lock down the support he needs. Another provision creating a framework for the sale of federal lands has gotten pushback from some GOP senators and from hunting groups. Lee, who oversaw that part of the bill, has indicated he plans to make changes. Then there are the two biggest, looming fights: How deeply to cut into Medicaid spending and how high to set the cap on state and local tax, or SALT, deductions. Reconciliation bill provisions must be ruled budget-related for the passage threshold to be 51 instead of 60 votes.
E&E News
13-06-2025
- Business
- E&E News
Senate axes regulation-slashing measure from megabill
A major deregulatory proposal that Republican hardliners had hoped to include in their party-line megabill was cut in the Senate. Absent from a new section of the GOP budget reconciliation bill released Thursday is language from the 'Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act,' which would have given Congress final approval over certain agency rules and would have expanded Congress' ability to undo rules already in place. Initial versions of the House reconciliation bill included parts of the 'REINS Act.' But House leadership slashed it at the eleventh hour, replacing it instead with a blanket appropriation for the White House's Office of Management and Budget to conduct deregulatory actions. Advertisement The Senate Judiciary Committee's portion of the megabill, released Thursday night, included no mention of 'REINS Act,' and also excluded the funding the House wanted for the budget office.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion - Congress should seize this big, beautiful chance to REIN in regulatory overreach
A provision that would have benefited the public tremendously by enabling Congress to rein in out-of-control, costly regulations was stripped out of the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. This was a sad turn of events that hopefully will be corrected in the Senate. Nearly a decade ago, Congress considered legislation to fundamentally alter how regulations are adopted, defending personal and economic freedom in the process: the Regulations of the Executive In Need of Scrutiny or REINS Act. REINS provisions that were a part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act until shortly before its passage would have put Congress back in the driver's seat regarding regulations. The importance of the REINS Act and the efforts to get it passed as part of the reconciliation bill cannot be overstated. Tens of thousands of new regulations are imposed by unaccountable agency bureaucrats each year, limiting individual liberty and choice and increasing costs in myriad, often unrecognized ways. Regulations are hidden taxes that siphon hundreds of billions of dollars from individual households and businesses every year. They represent the largest single fiscal burden on the economy outside of individual and corporate income taxes. The measure has been misleadingly described as a 'wholesale rollback of federal regulations.' In fact, it would merely force Congress to take responsibility for regulations developed by executive agencies to execute the laws it passes. Under REINS, if Congress disagrees with an agency's interpretation of what a law requires or imposes, Congress could prevent the regulations in question from taking effect. The scare-tactics used to vilify REINS inevitably involve a focus on regulations that protect human health and the environment. But many regulations — especially in energy and environmental policy — provide little or no measurable benefits in these areas despite imposing huge costs. The rules are often designed to expand the budgets and power of bureaucrats, creating make-work ventures and guaranteeing lifetime employment for agency staff. In a craven attempt to evade responsibility, past Congresses found it easy to delegate lawmaking power to executive agencies. Congress took credit for passing vague feel-good laws, only to blame agencies for going overboard, claiming they never intended the resulting onerous outcomes. Congress then publicly assails agencies for going beyond what lawmakers intended but does nothing to correct the supposed overreach. Recognizing the growing problem of overregulation, in 1996 Congress passed the Congressional Review Act, which granted Congress the power under limited circumstances to review and block major regulations retroactively. The Congressional Review Act, however, has been used to overturn only 20 out of tens of thousands of regulations enacted in the nearly 30 years since it passed — in part because the president is allowed to veto resolutions under that law. The REINS Act is superior because it reverses this dynamic by requiring congressional approval for all major regulations — an opt-in system, so to speak, instead of opt-out. And under REINS, the president would not be authorized to ignore the will of Congress and its interpretation of its own laws, because no veto is available. The REINS provisions House Republicans inserted into the reconciliation bill are even more expansive than the original REINS legislation, requiring that any 'major rule that increases revenue' be approved through a joint resolution of the House and Senate. The provisions would have also allowed lawmakers to retroactively terminate countless rules that federal agencies have already implemented by requiring agencies to submit them to Congress for review. Rules that Congress fails to approve would automatically sunset. Also, multiple recently finalized regulations could be rescindedwith a single resolution rather than each individually as the Congressional Review Act requires. House sponsors had to remove the REINS provisions to avoid letting Democrats filibuster the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the Senate. However, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) reportedly believes he can make some of the provisions pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, so that they can be reinserted and the bill can still pass with a simple majority. I believe the REINS provisions maybe the single most beneficial law Congress could adopt to get regulators' boots off the throats of average people and businesses. Congress alone was delegated the power to regulate interstate commerce. It didn't jealously guard that power before now; it should do so going forward. H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
09-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Congress should seize this big, beautiful chance to REIN in regulatory overreach
A provision that would have benefited the public tremendously by enabling Congress to rein in out-of-control, costly regulations was stripped out of the budget reconciliation bill recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. This was a sad turn of events that hopefully will be corrected in the Senate. Nearly a decade ago, Congress considered legislation to fundamentally alter how regulations are adopted, defending personal and economic freedom in the process: the Regulations of the Executive In Need of Scrutiny or REINS Act. REINS provisions that were a part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act until shortly before its passage would have put Congress back in the driver's seat regarding regulations. The importance of the REINS Act and the efforts to get it passed as part of the reconciliation bill cannot be overstated. Tens of thousands of new regulations are imposed by unaccountable agency bureaucrats each year, limiting individual liberty and choice and increasing costs in myriad, often unrecognized ways. Regulations are hidden taxes that siphon hundreds of billions of dollars from individual households and businesses every year. They represent the largest single fiscal burden on the economy outside of individual and corporate income taxes. The measure has been misleadingly described as a 'wholesale rollback of federal regulations.' In fact, it would merely force Congress to take responsibility for regulations developed by executive agencies to execute the laws it passes. Under REINS, if Congress disagrees with an agency's interpretation of what a law requires or imposes, Congress could prevent the regulations in question from taking effect. The scare-tactics used to vilify REINS inevitably involve a focus on regulations that protect human health and the environment. But many regulations — especially in energy and environmental policy — provide little or no measurable benefits in these areas despite imposing huge costs. The rules are often designed to expand the budgets and power of bureaucrats, creating make-work ventures and guaranteeing lifetime employment for agency staff. In a craven attempt to evade responsibility, past Congresses found it easy to delegate lawmaking power to executive agencies. Congress took credit for passing vague feel-good laws, only to blame agencies for going overboard, claiming they never intended the resulting onerous outcomes. Congress then publicly assails agencies for going beyond what lawmakers intended but does nothing to correct the supposed overreach. Recognizing the growing problem of overregulation, in 1996 Congress passed the Congressional Review Act, which granted Congress the power under limited circumstances to review and block major regulations retroactively. The Congressional Review Act, however, has been used to overturn only 20 out of tens of thousands of regulations enacted in the nearly 30 years since it passed — in part because the president is allowed to veto resolutions under that law. The REINS Act is superior because it reverses this dynamic by requiring congressional approval for all major regulations — an opt-in system, so to speak, instead of opt-out. And under REINS, the president would not be authorized to ignore the will of Congress and its interpretation of its own laws, because no veto is available. The REINS provisions House Republicans inserted into the reconciliation bill are even more expansive than the original REINS legislation, requiring that any 'major rule that increases revenue' be approved through a joint resolution of the House and Senate. The provisions would have also allowed lawmakers to retroactively terminate countless rules that federal agencies have already implemented by requiring agencies to submit them to Congress for review. Rules that Congress fails to approve would automatically sunset. Also, multiple recently finalized regulations could be rescindedwith a single resolution rather than each individually as the Congressional Review Act requires. House sponsors had to remove the REINS provisions to avoid letting Democrats filibuster the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in the Senate. However, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) r eportedly believes he can make some of the provisions pass muster with the Senate parliamentarian, so that they can be reinserted and the bill can still pass with a simple majority. I believe the REINS provisions maybe the single most beneficial law Congress could adopt to get regulators' boots off the throats of average people and businesses. Congress alone was delegated the power to regulate interstate commerce. It didn't jealously guard that power before now; it should do so going forward. H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D., is director of the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit research organization based in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
