Western GOPs Exhort Congress to Take Back Regulatory Power
Western Republicans charged in a new report today that federal agencies have grown so powerful under the Obama administration that jobs and economic growth are being strangled by increasing red tape.
And, they said, it’s only going to get worse unless the legislative branch takes its power back.
Citing the post-election “red-tape rush,” the Senate and House Western Caucus members advocate congressional action to stop agency overreach into their regulatory domain.
“Over the past four years, we’ve watched the Obama administration repeatedly circumvent Congress in an attempt to regulate entire industries, like the coal industry, out of existence,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of the Senate Western Caucus. “Until Congress regains control over the regulatory process, Washington agencies will continue to push forward with their job-crushing, anti-growth agendas.”
The report cites the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules that constitute the “war on coal,” including the New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new coal-fired power plants, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, and EPA’s Coal Combustion Residuals Rule.
“Industries need a fighting chance against EPA unfairly targeting their businesses in this way,” the report states. “In order to do that, we need to give businesses the ability to challenge EPA’s flawed scientific data, stop judicial legislating through activist sue-and settle-tactics and create jobs by streamlining environmental permitting of job creating projects.”
Currently, the caucuses note, the EPA’s statements and figures can’t be challenged in court under the Information Quality Act.
And even though regulatory reform has been championed for years, the report adds, executive orders to improve how agencies issue rules or requiring cost-benefit analyses are seldom followed, including President Ford’s Executive Order 11821, President Carter’s Executive Order 12044, President Reagan’s Executive Order 12291, and President Clinton’s Executive Order 12866.
Arguing Congress must take a greater role, the report pushes three pieces of legislation already passed in the House.
Rep. Lamar Smith’s (R-Texas) Regulatory Accountability Act of 2011 passed 253 – 167 more than a year ago. It would require a federal agency, in the rulemaking process, to make all preliminary and final factual determinations based on “substantial evidence.” Companion legislation was introduced in the Senate by Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
Rep. Tim Griffin’s (R-Ark.) Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act passed 245 – 172 at the end of July. It included the Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act of 2012, the Midnight Rule Relief Act of 2012, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2012, the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act of 2012, the Responsibly And Professionally Invigorating Development Act of 2012, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act, and the Tracking the Cost to Taxpayers of Federal Litigation Act. It also would require federal agencies to set standards for the scientific information being used in rulemaking.
Russian Paper Compares Obama’s Fools to Stalin’s Fools 12/06/12 Source: Pravda
http://www.reagancoalition.com/articles/2012/20121206003-compare-fools.html#YYIzMOQft5owrCdz.99
While there are many fools among the pack, too many are absolute knaves. In other words, without the outright complicity (of surrogates who give the Radical-in-Chief the cover to grab Congressional powers)of many helping hands, the Thief-in-Chief would have a harder time subverting the Constitution.
And it is not as if the RINO’s, in powerful positions, aren’t helping the Thug-in-Chief. In fact, Boehner, a spineless, weepy alcoholic is purging conservative Repubs from the ranks of powerful committees!
So, if true conservatives in powerful positions do NOT exert massive pressure on their Repub counterparts in Congress, Stalin will look like a piker in relation to America’s Deceiver-in-Chief.
Once the Republic falls it will not be rebuilt, at least for centuries – http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/12/04/northeast-intelligence-network-insider-threats-barack-hussein-obamas-brave-new-world-addendum-to/
Word of wisdom: If you are quoting Pravda (without irony) in support of your beliefs, you are probably in need of a long vacation and some serious introspection into both your thought process and the your filter on the evidence you consider legitimate when making decisions.
at times it seems more likely to find the truth in Pravda and other offshore press than in the press and media here in the States. Why? Simple: no repercussions from the ruling elite when uncomfortable or damning truth is presented. Sure, Pravda may well be laughing us to scorn for having fallen for their former government’s party line as we’ve done. But the ranting picketeer on the corner may well be speaking truth in spite of his abhorrent position. Things I’ve read of late out of Pravda better fit known but little trumpeted facts than do the weak snivelling “reports” in our own press. Britain have a handful of press who also seem to see our situation more clearly than do our mainstream press. Perhaps they, as well, feel more free to speak truth to their own people, not having any repercussions for so doing. Sad, when our own “media” fail to report truth, and present treacly, inane analysis” of said supposed “facts”. A truly free press is one of the keys, without which liberty is stolen. A press beholden to the ruling elite is NOT free. Nor is one in fear of repercussions for speaking uncomfortable things. Liberty IS in peril here, and I lay part of that blame at the feet of our largely bought-off press. Carrots and sticks are too effective in coercing the donkey to go where its masters would have it go.
Bad as Pravda is, they don’t want the US to collapse, not after seeing the effects of the USSR collapsing. Sure, they want our influence to wane, but they don’t want a USSR-style collapse and partition of the United States because of our massive stockpile of nuclear weapons and small arms. If nothing else, they want to make sure American weapons don’t wind up in the hands of the Republic of Georgia, the Third Republic of Poland, or any of the other former Soviet Republics or satellite states.
These legislative initiatives at the federal level will surely fail because they necessarily require the cooperation of all three branches of government to pass any bill, which has about a snowballs chance in hell of ever happening as long as the Marxocrats are in charge. What needs to happen is for the individual STATE legislatures to begin the process of nullification to end the tyranny of the federal government by disallowing any law, edict, rule, or regulation foisted on the states by the federal government or its agencies that are in direct contravention of the Constitution AS WRITTEN; That, and giving the SCOTUS the finger…
Bingo.
The key is for a plethora of states to simultaneously do this. Hang separately and all that.
The problem with that, is that many states are so beholden to one industry that they cannot effectively regulate it at all.
Before the Clean Air and Clean Water acts were passed, we had a patchwork of legislation that simply didn’t do the job. Many of the worst polluting states just sat there and did nothing while their neighbours tried to clean up – and since pollution respects no borders, the neighbours of the polluting states had to deal with their gunk.
I agree that Federal Agencies should be required to show their work when they make new rules. But dropping something that really is a national concern back on the states is not going to solve anything.
The problem is the federal government is not accountable for the damage its lack of common sense does. The states are somewhat more accountable.
The tragedy is, for people like me, anytime i see any kind of enviro related proposition on a ballot I vote no. I know of course some care fore the environment is required but my trust is gone.
YOU GET THE GOVT YOU VOTE FOR– CONGRESS-Not so much the FED Agencies. So 1 question, can congress -or the house just not vote more money-vote any money-shut theDAM GOVT DOWN! — just shut it down, its hurting all of “US” -especially the idiots with the Obama phones.
CHECK “6″
It’s not just that the regulatory agencies are using bad physical and natural science in their mandates. It is that they are actively coordinating to piggyback on the federal Common Core education push to use the social sciences and pedagogy in the classrooms to make students believe in the bad science and the need for the regulations. http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/if-reality-is-ignored-or-disregarded-when-do-we-become-a-state-against-its-people/ comes from a report NOAA put out in support of its Global Change Research Program.
NASA, NOAA, and the National Science Foundation all working to use education to create a mindset that tolerates redesigning the US economy around all this flawed science and computer modelling based on flawed or unproven assumptions.
Where have these jerks been all these years?
Now that it’s too late, these pansy, careerist good-old-boys of the Republicrats play the adolescent “Well, I was gonna . . .” game. Yeah. Sure.
It’s over. Go Galt.
This all speaks directly to human nature. Specifically, the lazy part of human nature. Over the centuries and especially over the last decades, elected officials wanted ways to have all the free time and perks and enjoy them while “other people” did the work necessary. If it wasn’t a “special committee” then they devised some entity/agency to not only create more government top-heaviness, but to ensure they would never have to be responsible for anything it did, while at the same time enjoying their free time and perks.
Whenever blame came around, the people said, “Hey..whatcha gonna do about XYZ?” and the representative said, “It’s out of my hands…that’s the EPA.”, or similar. Thus, it then has to be turned over to the courts to decide…again the elected representative avoiding having to have attention drawn upon them for “all the wrong reasons”.
Like in high-school, when a student stands their ground, teachers and peers condemn that student for “being a trouble-maker” or “why can’t you just go along to get along?”. The simple answer is that that’s the simple way to do things. So going along enables the elected official to remain, while never looking like a “trouble-maker” and Boehner has just demonstrated what happens to people who he thinks are trouble-makers.
Thus we are subjected now to one-party rule. Not government of the people, for the people, by the people. There are easily listed examples throughout his term to prove it.
But, the elected officials largely are of a pop-culture breed who think a photo-op and a quick snarky phrase are the answer to “good governance” when in reality it takes WORK. No heavy physical-labor type work but intellectual honesty, clarity, consistency, clear-thinking, courage of the kind that people will call you names, regardless and being able to face it, knowing the truth is on your side and it’s very, very hard.
Like many military leaders I watched, they opted for going along with the good ol’ boy club and chuckling about it while they preserved their positions. After all, that’s what it’s all about (to them).
Boehner’s “screw you” mentality is now on display. He stated some years ago how “powerless” he felt because “congress is only one third of the whole government”, while completely ignoring why that is so and why it is so important.
He “goes with the flow” which is a synonym for being a coward. As long as his position and “authority” aren’t threatened, then he’s fine with obamacare, higher taxes, government intrusion into people’s lives, the whole assembly.
DC is Hollywood for ugly people.
We really should stop calling it “flawed science”. It’s not science at all. It’s just lies masquerading as science.
Congress can start purging the bureaucrats with the EPA, Department of Education and the Department of Energy.
This looks very similar to the way we went into Afghanistan, and Iraq. Here we go AGAIN! Drill here, Drill now, and Refine Here, and Refine now, and end the needless wars by the military industrial complex! Bring everybody home!
10,000 U.S. Troops – Plus French, British Forces – Get Ready for War Against Syria Will Hype and Over-Reaction Lead to War? By Washington’s Blog Global Research, December 06, 2012
http://www.globalresearch.ca/10000-u-s-troops-plus-french-british-forces-get-ready-for-war-against-syria/5314444
Good luck. Elections have consequences.
the current GOP leadership doesn’t fight Big Gov.
they ARE Big Gov.
Yes, elections have consequences, but the consequences should not exceed the bounds of the constitution. Period. But both parties have an almost equal share of the blame for evicerating the constitution. And with the spineless, big government, corrupt John Boehner, not much is going to change. After all, he has the power to stop the overreaching regulation by cutting off the funds, but has chosen not to do so.
So the answers to our problems will not come from Washington. So stop electing Republicans and hoping for change. It ‘ain’t gonna happen. The Republicans are at best, just a moderating force on the radical Left. But they will never be the antidote. Why? Because they love big government just as much as the other side. They just want their turns at the wheels of power; not to diminish that power. Once you understand that, you will see the answer to the problems.
1. We need better election laws to ensure cleaner elections. State drivers licenses or ID’s with pictures should be the mininum requirement for registering. And if someone hasn’t voted in 2 or 3 elections, they should be automatically dropped from the voter rolls. And all votes with voter rolls that exceed the voting age population of the precinct by 105% should be invalid. And get rid of early voting.
2. Get your kids out of the government schools. Pay for private education or home school. If you’re wealthy, sponsor kids to to get into private schools.
3. Stop donating to universities that keep out conservatives in the classroom and off the campus lecture circuit. Pressure the admin. to open their universities to conservatives. The only lesson the marxists seem to pay attention to, it money. So hit them in the pocketbook and pressure them. Donate to groups that sponsor conservatism on the campus.
4. Pressure your state government from opening an Obamacare exchange.
5. Pressure your state and local government to not comply with the corrupt edicts coming out of Washington that says they can haul off the citizens without a proper warrant.
6. Support the Republicans governor association of the Republican party in the light red and purple states. We need more completly red states.
The answer is resistance at all level. Pressure advistisers, pressure liberal organizations, especially universities to open up to conservatives. Stop donating to liberal charities that restrict freedom like all the environment groups. Find out who runs the charities and what they really spend the SPEND money on.
The answers lie in federalism. That is the state governments resisting big government and its big brother overreach. Its the only answer, other than picking up and moving to a new country. So pressure your state and local governments to do the right thing. Oh, some may need proding, but if they are pressured enough they will do the right thing.
What about a sunset rule?
All regulations automatically expire after 4 years unless woted into law by Congress. Congress will not provide funds to agencies to enforce expired regulations.
This would also get all the ridiculous older regulations off the books.
Now THAT, is a very good idea!!!
States like Wyoming are America’s rotten boroughs. Because of a flaw in our Constitution, they have as many senators as California, New York, or Texas, but absurdly small populations, which means that they punch above their weight politically and also that they are dominated by small, wealthy groups that find them easy to dominate. These states have an ambiguous relationship with the Feds. They are one and all welfare cases dependent on the more productive urbanized states, but they complain bitterly about environmental regulations since many of their elites come from extractive industries like mining or operate extraordinarily dirty power plants like the complex at Four Corners. Of course they want to be able to piss in the creek. And of course they don’t lack for cheer leaders among the ideologues in these parts.
Absolutely not. The Senate should not be directly elected or proportional. It is where the States as States should exercise their power to hold the federal government to it’s constitutional limits.
And you think you’re right because? The Constitution is holy writ? Cowboys are wiser than New Yorkers? Democracy is evil? Coal mine owners have demonstrated amazingly high levels of public spirit? American history shows that those who yelled the loudest about state’s rights were motivated by the purest motives? The old system in which state legislators named senators never resulted in gross corruption?
The funny thing is that some of your intellectual forebears were critical of the Constitutional provision that every state gets two senators. Of course their objection was not that the senate rules were a clumsy political compromise adopted because it was the only way the Constitution could pass in the first place. The Conservative objection was that the rule could be used to further causes they didn’t like. I encountered this sentiment while reading some remarks of John Calhoun the other day. Back before the Civil War, he specifically mentioned the possibility that Wyoming might someday be granted statehood even though its tiny population made that an absurd proposition. Of course Calhoun didn’t like that because every empty-parking-lot of a state North of the Mason-Dixon line meant two more votes against slavery.
Why yes, politically the Constitution IS Holy Writ! It can be changed through very specific means, but it is the highest law of the land. As to cowboys being wiser than New Yorkers, you can’t have met many cowboys if you doubt that. Your questions shriek of leftist elitism, you know. Whether there were people critical of the Constitution in the past (as you and your ilk are of it today) has absolutely nothing to do with its status as the ultimate law of the land. You show yourself to be in incredibly shallow thinker to make the claims that you do.
I’m in favor of one man, one vote. I guess that’s elitism in your book.
The answer to our problem with Congress is to eliminate it completely and have the people vote directly. Our “representative” government was created in a day when it took a month for a letter to travel across the U.S., there were no phones, to televison, no radio, no internet, no instant communication. It made sense to send representatives to Congress back then to speak for the people. This concept makes no sense today. With instant communications available in this day and age, we need to eliminate Congress and have the people vote for any proposed legislation. The detail of how this would work could be debated and included in an Amendment to the Constitution. But this would get rid of a lot of the corruption in government. It would be nearly impossible to bribe or bully 300 million plus people into voting for idiotic legislation, especially if a requirement for 3/4 majority was needed to pass any law. Unless any law was a really good idea, it would be very difficult to pass any new ones.
It’s not just the EPA that is causing problems. It’s any one of the alphabet federal agencies that are causing havoc across the land. I work for a local government agency (city) and the red tape from the Feds is sooooooo frustrating. The one-size fits all that K.R. Cross champions where the Feds sit on their thrones back east and issue common rules for all states to adhere to is a major problem. Let me give you an example.
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) is responsible for the “waters of the U.S.”. The problem is the USACE has not yet designated which waterways specifically qualify as waters of the U.S. If you have a project with Federal-aid dollars involved, you have to secure a NEPA document and check with the USACE to see if a permit is needed. A recent interchange project that I am working on is located near a dry wash that is located more than 9 miles from the nearest “river”. Now most rivers in the west are not really rivers, but actually dry washes that only get wet once in a blue moon during a rare storm event. These rivers are NOT navigable, which is a primary requirement for designating a river as a waters of the U.S.
When we submitted our paperwork to the USACE, they designated the dry wash next to our project as a “waters of the U.S.” requiring a permit, even though there is rarely water in the dry wash and even when there is water flowing in the wash it NEVER reaches the “river” more than 9 miles away! This held up our project for more than 6 months and added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of the interchange.
I would like to offer all the details of our experience with the USACE, but that would take pages and pages of explanation. Bottom line is, the Federal red tape delayed construction jobs, delayed the project, and added thousands of dollars to the project that did not need to be spent. There was no reasoning with the USACE, they are dictatorial and adamant about getting their way, even though they have not even followed their own regulations. It is their way or the highway.
If Congress doesn’t act soon, it’s over for this country.