While the REINS Act would make executive-branch regulations difficult going forward, another suite of legislative measures would aim to unravel what the Obama administration has already done.
Using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage, Republicans are loading fiscal year 2012 spending bills with tack-on measures, called riders, that would defund or ban regulations on issues ranging from air and water quality to endangered species. For example, environmental groups count scores of antienvironmental amendments pending on the spending bill for the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, which the House began debating in July and takes up again in September.
Republicans say excessive regulation by federal agencies creates uncertainty and raises costs for businesses, discouraging investment and job growth. It’s a main reason that the US economy is in such a deep slump, they add. Many House GOP freshmen campaigned against the Environmental Protection Agency’s global-warming initiatives.
