REINS Act Gets New Champion
The important reform bill, the Regulations of the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, is getting new champion with the retirement of Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY).
From an emailed press release announcing the change:
“Todd Young is one of the hardest-working and most diligent new members of Congress. He has enthusiastically championed the REINS Act at home and in Washington,” said Congressman Davis. “Congress has excessively delegated its constitutional responsibility for making the law of the land to unelected bureaucrats for too long. The REINS Act is one of the most important structural reforms to restore this accountability. I am confident that Congressman Young will be a tireless champion for the REINS Act going forward.”
Calling Young “tireless” is a good word choice. According to the Congressman’s official bio, he put himself through night school to get an MBA from the University of Chicago and a law degree from the University of Indiana. Prior to that, he enlisted in the Navy en route to securing an appointment to that branch’s academy.
Young will need that doggedness to pass the REINS ACT into law.
Currently, there is no congressional oversight of bureaucratic “major rules” costing the economy $100 million a year or more in compliance costs. The REINS Act would change that by requiring administrative agencies to submit proposed major rules to Congress for an up-or-down vote in both chambers before becoming law. The aim is to stop rogue agencies like EPA or HHS from legislating through rulemaking what they can’t get Congress to pass through the normal lawmaking process.
What are Young’s prospects? This year, Rep. Davis convinced the GOP-dominated House to pass the bill, but like every House reform, the REINS Act died from inaction in the Democratic Senate. But if after the November elections the GOP can hold the House and gain the Senate with conservative reformers – or Republican incumbents scared straight by conservative primary challengers – then expect to see the REINS Act make great strides towards passage.
Our constitutional system needs Congress to get back in the game on regulation, if for no other reason than to reestablish accountability between the laws that govern us and the people we elect to pass them.
Good on Davis for picking Young to succeed him. Now voters in the several states need to send another crop of conservative reformers to the Senate to help him out.
In an interview with CFIF, Todd Young, Chief Operating Officer for Center for America, discusses the crisis behind the skilled worker shortage, a new campaign to match National Guard and other military veterans with companies looking for workers, and recent unemployment figures.
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