Bill would require government repeal three existing rules or regulations for every new one it creates
There are so many federal rules and regulations that an estimated majority of Americans have probably violated criminal law, even if unknowingly.
Context
It seems that the number of federal rules and regulations never stops increasing.
At the end of its fourth year, the George W. Bush administration had created 167 new “economically significant” federal rules, defined as costing $100 million or more. Then the Barack Obama administration went even higher than that, with 225 by the end of its fourth year. Then the Donald Trump administration went even higher than that, with 252 by the end of its fourth year.
Trump’s final year of 2020 set a new record for the most economically significant federal rules created in a single year with 134. The previous record, 99, had been set in 2016 during Obama’s final year.
What the bill does
A new bill would require the federal government to repeal three new rules for every new one it creates.
It was introduced in the House as H.R. 662, by Rep. Bill Posey (R-FL8). The bill does not appear to have an official title.
What supporters say
Supporters argue that the deluge of requirements largely fail to protect safety or health, but instead mostly just add levels upon levels of unnecessary and expensive bureaucracy and recordkeeping.
“Today I worry even more about the sheer quantity of rules,” political pundit John Stossel wrote. “There are now 170,000 pages of federal laws and many more local rules.” (That column was written in 2014; the current pages exceed 185,000.) “If you can’t get a job, there’s a good chance that this spider web of regulations is the reason why.”
“What employer wants to hire when doing so requires fighting incomprehensible complexity and risking punishment for violating some obscure rule?” Stossel continued. “I’d be afraid to build a serious business. Today’s laws are so complex even the lawyers don’t understand them. And the clutter gets worse. Every day, regulators craft more rules. It’s always more. If you’re a regulator, and you don’t add rules, you think you’re not doing your job.”
What opponents say
Most opponents would admit that, true, there are definitely examples of absurd laws — indeed, the Twitter account @CrimeADay has amassed more than 160,000 followers listing the most absurd federal laws. For example, selling earwax remover without telling people that they should see a doctor if they still have excessive earwax after using it.
But opponents would say that repealing laws numerically rather than qualitatively is just attempting to advertise a talking point about regulation (and deregulation), rather than opting for the actual most effective governance. For example, the bill would allow an extremely minor rule to be implemented — let’s say one about selling earwax remover — while repealing three rules relating to clean air, clean water, and seatbelts in cars.
Odds of passage
Rep. Posey introduced two previous versions of the legislation in 2017 and 2019, both of which required federal agencies to repeal two rules for each new one. Neither version attracted a single cosponsor, nor received a committee vote.
The 2021 legislation now ups that to three repeals for each new rule. (In Stossel’s aforementioned opinion column, he advocated an even higher 5:1 ratio.) It has not yet attracted any cosponsors, and awaits a potential vote in the House Judiciary Committee. Odds of passage are low in the Democratic-controlled chamber.
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This article was written by GovTrack Insider staff writer Jesse Rifkin.
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