Floor Statement for H.R. 712, the “Sunshine for Regulations and Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2016”

Chairman Goodlatte: It has been years since federal officials declared that the “Great Recession” had ended and recovery had begun.  It has been years since the Obama Administration took office, promising to deliver prosperity and security once more to our Nation. We are now approaching American voters’ next choice of leadership for the United States.  And the Obama Administration seeks to assure us that times are better, and times are safer. Workers, small business owners and Main Street families across our Nation know better.  America is still struggling to create enough new jobs and economic growth to produce the prosperity and security Americans need and deserve. Unless Washington relents from adding unnecessarily to the nearly $2 trillion in annual costs that federal regulation imposes on our economy, America’s job creators and innovators will not be able to create the jobs and growth needed to produce a true, new morning in America. Today’s bill contains three measures sure to help remedy this situation. First, the bill offers strong reforms to attack a problem that lies behind many of the costliest new regulations Washington issues each year.  That is the problem of sue-and-settle regulation. Time and again, new, high-cost regulations are issued under consent decrees and settlement agreements that force federal agencies to issue new rules.  These decrees and settlements stem from deals between regulatory agencies and pro-regulatory plaintiffs.  The plaintiffs seeking regulations sue, and the agencies seeking help to regulate settle, gaining the force of a judge’s gavel to impose their will on the economy. Those to be regulated—our Nation’s job creators—often do not know about these deals until the plaintiffs’ complaints and the proposed decrees or settlements are filed in court.  By then, it is too late.  Regulated businesses, State regulators and other interested entities are unlikely to be able to intervene in the litigation.  The court can approve the deals before regulated parties even have an opportunity to determine whether new regulatory costs will be imposed on them. Title I of today’s legislation, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act, brings this abusive practice to an end.  It assures that those to be regulated have a fair opportunity to participate in the resolution of litigation that affects them.  It ensures that courts have all the information they need before they approve proposed decrees and settlements.  And it provides needed transparency on the ways agencies conduct their business. Title II of the bill rests on the same principle of transparency.  Even when new regulations are not forced upon them by judicial decree, Americans deserve to know what new regulations agencies plan to send their way.  They deserve to know earlier and better what those new rules will look like, how much they will cost, and when they may be imposed. Armed with this information, America’s small businesses and families will be in a better position to respond to agency plans with better and more timely comments on proposed regulations. And they will be better and more timely able to bring to Congress’ attention concerns about planned regulation they believe is unnecessary, too costly or ineffective. Title II of the bill, the ALERT Act, accomplishes just that.  It reforms disclosure requirements for upcoming rules by requiring more details to be disclosed, and by requiring the publication of monthly, online updates of information on the rules’ schedules, costs and economic effects, including jobs impacts. Finally, title III of the bill, the Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act, helps to fix one of the most maddening things Main Street Americans and small business owners across the Nation confront.  Not only do federal regulators issue too many regulations that cost too much.  Too often, those regulations are impossible for an ordinary citizen to understand. Title III offers a welcome remedy, by requiring each agency to publish an online 100-word summary of any new, proposed regulation. What a concept—state in clear, simple and short terms for the American people just what federal regulators propose to do.  State it in terms that don’t require help from a lawyer to understand.  And state it online—every time a new regulation is proposed. All of the legislation in this bill is sure to help Americans who are besieged and bewildered by the flood of new regulations flowing every day from Washington’s regulatory bureaucracy.  I thank Reps. Collins, Ratcliffe and Luetkemeyer for introducing each piece of legislation the bill contains. I urge all of my colleagues to support the bill, and reserve the balance of my time.