Last night, Congressman Doug Lamborn supported H.R. 5, the Regulatory Accountability Act.

Information Courtesy of the House Majority Whip

The Regulatory Accountability Act (Chairman Goodlatte) follows on passage of the Midnight Rules Relief Act and REINS Act last week and reflects the House’s commitment to tame the regulatory state and return legislative powers to Congress. In 2015, federal regulations cost $1.89 trillion, placing a drag on the country’s growth and productivity and harming job creation, innovation, and the formation of new businesses. Small businesses often bear the brunt of regulatory abuse and consistently cite regulations as the largest burden and obstacle to their growth. Currently, when regulations are challenged in courts, judges give broad deference to the agencies in assessing whether they have interpreted the laws correctly based on a Supreme Court ruling in 1984, Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. The result is that bureaucrats have far more powers than Congress intended.  
 
The Regulatory Accountability Act addresses these problems and more by including six bills which passed the House with bipartisan support in previous Congresses. Together they bring increased efficiency, transparency, and accountability to the regulatory process, giving those who will actually feel the impact of proposed regulations, rather than Washington bureaucrats, a larger voice in the process.
 
The six bills included in the package are:
 
1. Regulatory Accountability Act: Requires agencies to use less costly regulations to achieve a given objective. (Title I—Regulatory Accountability Act )
2. Separation of Powers Restoration Act: Repeals the Chevron and Auer doctrines and enables judges to “end judicial deference to bureaucrats’ statutory and regulatory interpretations.” (Title II – Separation of Powers Restoration Act)
3. Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act: Requires agencies to explain how their actions affect small business owners, employees, and customers. .  (Title III—Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act)
4. REVIEW Act: Prevents new rules with billion-dollar annual costs from taking effect until litigation against them has been resolved. It would not affect current regulations. (Title IV—REVIEW Act)
5. ALERT Act: Requires agencies to publish already-mandatory transparency reports that they regularly dodge. (Title V—ALERT Act)
6. Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act: Requires agencies to publish summaries of their new rules in the English language, more or less.  (Title VI—Providing Accountability Through Transparency Act)