Volume 161, No. 121 covering the 1st Session of the 114th Congress (2015 - 2016) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“THE REINS ACT” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5602-H5603 on July 29, 2015.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE REINS ACT
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the House passed a measure I cosponsored, H.R. 427, known as the REINS Act, to end this administration's disregard for the separation of powers.
The bill rightly reasserts Congress' proper role in writing our Nation's laws by requiring that any regulation written with a cumulative impact of over $100 million be reviewed and approved by Congress before going into effect, instead of the stifling of innovation that we have seen the effects of.
Too often, we have seen this administration attempt to use creative interpretation of the law or aggressive rulemaking that have had a massive negative impact on our State's economy, resulting in higher prices, thousands of dollars per cost additionally per family per year, lower wages, fewer working hours, or complete loss of job opportunities altogether.
For example, the proposed waters of the United States regulation would insert the Environmental Protection Agency in local land use planning areas across the Nation.
Do we really need the Federal Government telling us how to landscape our own backyards? Is that even proper? I think not.
Do we really think the Federal Government should be regulating manmade ditches along country roads or fields or dry streambeds and puddles which hold water only during and immediately after rainstorms or irrigation and drainage ditches which wouldn't even exist if not created by water districts and the people involved?
What a giant leap of grab of power by the Federal Government in asserting itself over these private properties via these regulations written by bureaucrats and not overseen by Congress directly.
In my district, Federal bureaucrats are unilaterally deciding, with no evidence or science, that small depressions in fields are linked to distant waterways, placing vast areas of land out of production. Despite bipartisan congressional opposition, the administration is attempting to move forward with this aggressive regulation, waterways of the United States.
Mr. Speaker, the examples of this administration's aggressive and careless decisions, increasing costs, eliminating jobs are almost too numerous to count.
In 2014, Federal regulations cost our economy $1.88 trillion in higher prices for food, energy, and goods, averaging about $14,000 per U.S. household. This price tag has spiked, thanks to the President Obama administration, which added nearly 500 new regulations, 184 of which have combined to raise costs to Americans of about $80 billion. The result is 81 new major regulations per year.
Mr. Speaker, unelected bureaucrats shouldn't be imposing their will on the American people at a cost of billions of dollars each year. This is not the way to stop the difficult headwinds our economy faces. Indeed, this is causing more economic problems for us to recover from in this Nation.
It is time for the Senate to join the House and send H.R. 427, the REINS Act, and help with our job economy, with the boost we all need--
that we have needed for so long during this last 6 years. The REINS Act is needed to indeed rein in an out-of-control government.
Even the President himself said in his State of the Union Address in January 2011:
To reduce barriers to growth and investment . . . when we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we need to fix them.
The REINS Act is that fix. Let's get it done. Let's get the Senate to get it done.
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