Federal agencies could no longer conspire with presidential administrations to secretly craft expensive regulations if a bill by Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) becomes law.
The All Economic Regulations are Transparent Act of 2023, the ALERT Act, referred to the House by the Oversight Committee Tuesday, would require a monthly update from executive agencies with detailed information on any rules they are currently working on.
“As the American people are feeling the harmful impacts of Bidenflation and regulatory overreach, Congress should reclaim our Constitutional responsibilities and stop effectively granting unelected bureaucrats broad legislative powers,” Good said in a statement to Breitbart News. “My legislation would shine a light on the federal agencies spread throughout Washington which continue to pile new regulations on hardworking Americans.
Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., speaks during a House Committee on the Budget hearing on the Presidents fiscal year 2023 budget, Tuesday, March 29, 2022, in Washington. (Roberto Schmidt/Pool Photo via AP)
“I am pleased that my ALERT Act passed the Oversight Committee and I hope that House leadership will quickly bring it to the floor for a vote.”
Although the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions requires agencies to report their regulatory machinations, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer laid out in Wednesday’s markup how administrations have exploited the rules.
Comer said in 2012 “The Obama Administration delayed the publication of its Unified Agenda—which was chock full of new major rules—until after the 2012 presidential election. This allowed President Obama to hide the ball from voters and deny them the opportunity to hold him accountable for these new burdens.
“The Biden Administration has repeated the Obama playbook, failing multiple times to publish timely Unified Agendas—including by delaying publication until after the 2022 mid-term election.”
Those regulations have real costs. According to the American Action Forum, just one year of the Biden Administration’s regulations cost the American people $201 billion and 131 million hours in new annual paperwork.
Good’s legislation would require the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to issue an annual report detailing the cumulative costs of all rules that have been proposed or finalized during the previous 12 months.
Agencies also would be blocked from implementing their final rules for at least six months until after they have published certain information about the rules on the internet.
“In the digital age, this is all feasible,” Comer said. “It is all fair, and it is in fact, all overdue.”
Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) defended federal bureaucrats and spoke against the legislation, saying the bill would “undermine transparency by showcasing the costs of federal regulations while hiding the corresponding benefits.”
Good’s bill passed the House during the 115th Congress but was not passed by the Senate.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has endorsed Good’s legislation.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
