Bill Could Give Congress Veto Power Over Executive Regulations

A bill that would gut federal agencies’ ability to impose sweeping regulations could save government workers a great deal of time and money if implemented — more than 11 million hours of paperwork and $27 billion each year — according to an advocacy group.

The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act would force lawmakers to approve or deny every major rule with an economic impact of $100 million or more. The executive branch finalized 200 such rules last year, when it produced 16 times more regulations overall than the laws Congress passed over the same time period.

Right-leaning policy group American Action Forum published a study Tuesday predicting how much each state could save if the regulatory reform bill was already law, and could be used to block the 12 most expensive proposed federal rules from passing into regulation.

Sam Batkins, the nonprofit's director of regulatory policy and author of the research, said he envisioned the measure giving Congress the power to kill proposed rules similar to the ones he used in his research if it ever became law. He said the bill would allow lawmakers to "claw back" some of the governing power federal agencies presently hold.

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