If you’ve been pleased by the regulatory rollback of late, the time for celebration may be coming to an end. So far, the White House has utilized a law known as the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to repeal many of the “midnight” regulations passed in the waning months of the Obama presidency, according to Politico.
Reducing regulatory burden on small businesses continues to be one of NFIB’s top priorities. NFIB research has found that half of all small business owners say regulations are a very or somewhat serious problem.
“Small business owners are drowning in regulations imposed by every level of government,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan. “It’s a major problem affecting millions of businesses, and the federal government is the biggest contributor.”
In total, officials have used the CRA 14 times to eliminate rules and regulations put into place during the last year of the Obama presidency. This included rules limiting what data the FCC could use or sell, such as browsing history; a rule limiting where and how coal companies could dispose of mining waste; a rule giving OSHA the authority to enforce recordkeeping; and a rule encouraging cities and counties to create retirement accounts for employees that don’t have employer-backed plans.
The CRA specifically allows Congress 60 days of session (days when Congress is in session, not calendar days) after an agency has submitted a rule to Congress to disapprove. The CRA was signed into law by president Bill Clinton in 1996, and was only successfully used once before the Trump administration, in 2001 relating to a Department of Labor rule regarding ergonomics.
“I think we’ve taken maximum opportunity to look at things the country lived without for 228 years, and the Obama administration lived without for at least 7 1/2,” said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, according to Politico. “That kind of late rulemaking probably doesn’t deserve to be permanent if you can do anything about it. We did.”
RELATED:
