Congressman Scott Desjarlais voted on Wednesday for the Midnight Rules Relief Act, legislation to prevent last-minute regulations from the outgoing Obama Administration from taking effect. The bill, which the Senate will now consider, amends the Congressional Review Act to allow Congress to override multiple federal regulations in “one fell swoop,” he said.
He said, “The current administration has set new records for total pages of federal regulations, and the President is using his last days in office to ensure his legacy is one of political and economic dysfunction. Today’s bill would help our country recover more quickly from a mess of rules and regulations weighing down future progress.”
The Congressional Review Act requires only a simple majority in both congressional chambers to override a new federal regulation, avoiding a Senate filibuster. Today’s bill would apply to any number of regulations within a president’s last year in office. The conservative-leaning American Action Forum estimates the price tag of Obama’s regulations since the election of Donald Trump in November to be between $44 and $75 billion.
“They include regulations harming Tennessee truckers, miners, farmers, ranchers, nearly everyone depending on affordable energy and transportation, including small businesses and families struggling in this economy,” said Rep. Desjarlais. During the 114th Congress, he voted to override Obama administration power and other regulations, which not only bypassed Congress’s legislative authority, but would have also harmed job and economic growth.
President Obama will be the first never to have presided over three percent or better annual economic growth. U.S. economic growth has averaged below the norm during his eight years in office. The bipartisan Midnight Rules Relief Act would apply to all future presidents, Democrat or Republican.