WASHINGTON, D.C. – Earlier today, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) went to the House Floor to speak in support of H.R. 427, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act:
Click here to watch his remarks
A transcript of his floor remarks is below:
“Mr. Chairman, if you look at what’s happening in our economy, why the economy is struggling so badly through this Obama economy, it’s because of radical regulations coming out of Washington.
“Every time I go home and meet with small businesses in my district in southeast Louisiana, the common thread is that it’s not the local business down the street that’s the main threat to their business. The main threat to small businesses throughout my district, and I hear it from my colleagues as well across the country, are the thousands and thousands of pages that come out of these federal agencies, these radical regulations that come out of these federal agencies. Unelected bureaucrats are imposing, in essence, new law that is making it harder to create jobs in this country.
“Hardworking taxpayers deserve a federal government that’s more efficient, more effective and more accountable, and that’s what the Reins Act does, Mr. Chairman. The Reins Act forces real accountability in regulations that are coming out of Washington. Whether it’s the IRS or EPA or NLRB or HHS or CMS, the alphabet soup of federal agencies that is crippling our economy with all of these regulations is what is holding our economy back.
“Why not have a mechanism that says if a rule is being proposed by a federal agency, by an unelected bureaucrat, that’s so important that it’s going to have a major impact on our economy, shouldn’t it, at least, go through the transparency of coming before the elected representatives of the people, Mr. Chairman? Why not have these conversations on C-SPAN, not in the dark halls of some federal, bureaucratic agency in Washington, some unelected bureaucrat that could wake up one morning and say that they are going to create a new law that is going to devastate our economy? Shouldn’t that at least go through public hearings? Shouldn’t it have to be passed by the elected people in Congress who will be held accountable every two years for the consequences of those regulations?
“Let’s stop crippling our economy. Let’s stop holding our economy back with these radical regulations, Mr. Chairman. Let’s pass the Reins Act and bring real accountability into the process of creating regulations in Washington. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.”