Fighting the huge hidden tax of federal regulation

By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador Americans spent $1.89 trillion to comply with federal regulations last year. Amazingly, that figure exceeds the combined individual and corporate income taxes the IRS expects to collect for the 2015 tax year, $1.82 trillion. This hidden tax amounts to nearly $15,000 per U.S. household, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Our economic recovery has been hampered by the onslaught of regulations from President Obama. But presidents from both parties have used regulations to skirt Congress and burden families and business. In 1960, the Code of Federal Regulations was about 23,000 pages. It now exceeds 175,000 pages! Before I came to Congress, I spent four years in the Idaho House, where the Legislature reviews every new regulation. It’s tedious but important work that helps keep Idaho a good place to do business and raise a family. That experience has made regulatory reform a top priority. With the 114th Congress drawing to a close, we can claim some successes in the past two years but much remains undone. The good news includes helping veterans, particularly in rural areas like Idaho, get access to health care. Two months after a bill I cosponsored was introduced to apply a common-sense travel standard, the VA relented and made it easier to receive non-VA care at VA expense. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives dropped a rule banning ammunition for the most popular rifle in America – the AR-15 – after a public outcry and a letter I cosigned with 235 colleagues. The courts have stepped up, blocking Obama on several major actions: his executive amnesty for about 5 million immigrants in the country illegally; the “Waters of the United States” rule that threatened to cripple agriculture; and the Clean Power Plan estimated to raise electricity costs by $12 billion over eight years. Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, a leading liberal, charges his former student, President Obama, with using the EPA to abuse the Constitution. “Burning the Constitution of the United States – about which I care deeply – cannot be part of our national energy policy,” Tribe told a House Committee. To fight these attacks Congress must reclaim its constitutional authority. Too often, we settle for vague legislation and leave the details up to the executive branch. We must be disciplined in every law we write. Finally, we must go beyond battling the latest overreaching regulation and reform the whole process. This week I joined in House passage of the Regulatory Integrity Act, which bars agencies from lobbying for their regulations ­– as the EPA did in 2014 by joining the Sierra Club in a social media campaign. I am a cosponsor of the REVIEW Act, approved last week in the Judiciary Committee and expected to be on the House floor next week. It would implement an automatic stay of any regulation with annual costs over $1 billion when the rule is challenged in court, delaying or blocking huge compliance costs until the courts decide if a regulation is lawful. Last year, for example, the Supreme Court invalidated EPA’s 2012 mercury rule – but only after power generators were forced to comply with annual costs estimated at $9.6 billion. Earlier, the House passed another bill I cosponsored, the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. REINS requires Congressional approval of rules with costs over $100 million, based on economic impact, consumer costs, job loss and other factors. In the Obama years alone, there have been 600 such regulations. Taken together, these are significant steps to help consumers and our economy. Even more important, they demonstrate how Congress can hold the permanent bureaucracy accountable and reaffirm the power to write law. That is a principle at the very heart of self-governance.