By Sarah Jane Allen and Jon Decker, Viante Foundation
You’ll be forgiven for having missed it, but an amendment offered to the newly passed Consolidated Appropriations Act offered a fascinating glimpse of D.C. dysfunction. Senator Mike Lee’s proposed Amendment 1121 — the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS) Act — put the Senate on record on the basic constitutional question of whether Congress should make laws, or unelected federal bureaucrats.
Our lead author recalls Senator Lee all the way back from his time serving as student body president of Brigham Young University. Even then, he was as diligent and dedicated to his job as he is today. The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS) Act that Senator Lee proposed as an amendment is an economically transformative piece of legislation, and yet, it’s so simple. All the REINS Act mandates is that any regulation costing more than $100 million annually must be approved by Congress before it’s enacted into law.
It sounds like commonsense, but Congress has turned the governing process upside down by increasingly punting regulatory decision-making over to the various federal agencies under the executive branch. This backwards process enables unelected bureaucrats to inflict debilitating economic costs on our families without giving the rest of us any say in the matter.
This process has led to a number of recent horror stories such as the federal mask and vaccine mandates, multiple illegal attempts to bailout federal student loans, Biden’s efforts to reinstated net neutrality Internet regulations (leaving us on the hook for a potentially massive new broadband tax), and the FTC declaring open season on America’s most successful businesses.
Given the significant overreach of federal agencies, especially since the pandemic — is it too much to ask that our elected representatives actually vote on regulations that impact our lives?
Apparently so, as the amendment failed when put up for a vote 51-46. The results were unfortunate, but thanks to Senator Lee, we now know which members of the Senate believe regulations should be enacted by Congress, and which believe laws should be enacted by a president’s hand picked bureaucrats. It was disappointing to see that all Senate Democrats, including more moderate members like Senators Manchin and Sinema, voted against Lee’s amendment, while all Republicans present voted in favor.
This certainly illustrates a divided Congress — but more troubling — the divide is over what their basic responsibilities are towards governing. Americans deserve to have their voices heard when it comes to laws that affect our lives and our pocketbooks. The countless regulations enacted during the pandemic did not save lives, but they did wreck our economy. What makes Manchin and Sinema think these same federal agencies will do better next time?
We agree with Senator Lee’s simple proposal. Give voters back their say in government — Make Congress Vote Again.
Sarah Jane Allen is the co-founder of the Viante Foundation. Jon Decker is the president of the Viante Foundation.