House Judiciary Committee Approves ALERT Act to Increase Transparency and Check Unnecessary Regulation
April 15, 2015
Washington, D.C.— The House Judiciary Committee approved H.R.1759, the All Economic Regulations are Transparent Act (ALERT Act), by a vote of 14-9. The bill reinforces and supplements current requirements so that the Executive Branch and its regulatory agencies release information about planned new regulations in a more detailed and timely manner.
The ALERT Act requires more detailed information for each planned rule in the Executive Branch’s Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions; monthly, online updates of information on rules expected to be proposed or released in the upcoming year; inclusion in monthly updates, once a rule has been formally proposed, of a schedule for completing the rulemaking, an estimate of the rule’s costs, and an estimate of the rule’s jobs impacts; and that required monthly disclosures be published for at least six months before a new rule can become effective.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Congressman John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), chief sponsor of the ALERT Act, praised the Committee’s passage of the bill.
Chairman Goodlatte: “President Obama made a promise to the American people that he would release information about proposed regulations in a timely manner, but has consistently broken his promise. Instead, the president has released these vital regulatory frameworks on his own timetable, which has been a detriment to small business owners. Thousands of small businesses across the country do not have sufficient time and resources to adjust their budgets and business practices in anticipation of regulatory changes. The ALERT Act directly holds the administration accountable by putting consequences in place for failing to release these important regulatory documents.”
Congressman Ratcliffe: “As I travel the 4th Congressional District of Texas, I hear the same message over and over again: get the government out of the way. Too many small businesses and hard-working families are drowning in regulations that unelected bureaucrats create out of thin air. I’m a limited government conservative who believes that economic prosperity comes from the ingenuity of the American people, not the overreach of the federal government. The ALERT Act forces President Obama and the executive branch to make the American people aware of regulations that are coming down the track, so that they don’t get steamrolled in the process of trying to comply.”
The ALERT Act requires more detailed information for each planned rule in the Executive Branch’s Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions; monthly, online updates of information on rules expected to be proposed or released in the upcoming year; inclusion in monthly updates, once a rule has been formally proposed, of a schedule for completing the rulemaking, an estimate of the rule’s costs, and an estimate of the rule’s jobs impacts; and that required monthly disclosures be published for at least six months before a new rule can become effective.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Congressman John Ratcliffe (R-Texas), chief sponsor of the ALERT Act, praised the Committee’s passage of the bill.
Chairman Goodlatte: “President Obama made a promise to the American people that he would release information about proposed regulations in a timely manner, but has consistently broken his promise. Instead, the president has released these vital regulatory frameworks on his own timetable, which has been a detriment to small business owners. Thousands of small businesses across the country do not have sufficient time and resources to adjust their budgets and business practices in anticipation of regulatory changes. The ALERT Act directly holds the administration accountable by putting consequences in place for failing to release these important regulatory documents.”
Congressman Ratcliffe: “As I travel the 4th Congressional District of Texas, I hear the same message over and over again: get the government out of the way. Too many small businesses and hard-working families are drowning in regulations that unelected bureaucrats create out of thin air. I’m a limited government conservative who believes that economic prosperity comes from the ingenuity of the American people, not the overreach of the federal government. The ALERT Act forces President Obama and the executive branch to make the American people aware of regulations that are coming down the track, so that they don’t get steamrolled in the process of trying to comply.”