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When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives last January, Democrats put their faith in the boomerang theory of politics—any newly ascendant party overreaches and alienates the moderates who elected them. So far, though, the GOP is proving a good deal smarter than some expected. Republican policies may be as radical as Democrats say, but they're cloaked in seductive rhetoric. And some are becoming law.
In Wisconsin and Ohio, Republican governors have used budget deficits as a justification for stripping public unions of collective bargaining rights. On Capitol Hill, 32 Republican senators have joined with an equal number of Democrats to pressure President Barack Obama into leading a bipartisan initiative to slash the nation's debt. And now, just as the disaster in Japan is forcing the world to reconsider the safety of nuclear energy, a new conservative idea is rising to the top of the Republican agenda in Washington—one that could thwart federal regulation of atomic power and just about any other industrial activity.
The latest innovation, known as the REINS Act, seeks to rein in the power of the federal government's estimated 680,000 managerial-level bureaucrats. The acronym stands for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny. It's a brilliant bit of legislative strategy that would impede oversight not just of nuclear reactors but also of oil and coal facilities, food processing plants, pharmaceutical factories, and all manner of transportation. From a packaging perspective, the bill's genius is that it sounds so reasonable. All it would require is that Congress hold itself responsible, via a prompt up-or-down vote, for every major new federal regulation. Why would anyone oppose political accountability?
A Tea Party favorite, the REINS Act also has strong backing from mainstream Republicans. A House subcommittee held uneventful hearings in early March, and passage by the full House this spring appears likely. In January, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called the bill "one of the first steps House Republicans are taking to fulfill our obligations to the American people." It would require every major rule—defined as any with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more—to be approved by both houses of Congress before it can take effect. This would have to happen within 70 legislative business days, and the President would then have to add his signature. Any hiccup along the way and the regulation dies.
Noah M. Sachs, an associate professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who is tracking the REINS Act, estimates that it would apply to 50 to 100 major regulations a year. Illustrations range from rules the Federal Communications Commission announced last December intended to keep the Internet an open network to new standards, proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency this month, to restrict emissions of mercury and other pollutants from coal-burning power plants. As a practical matter it would give House Republicans unilateral power to kill any important rule issued by, say, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. "When liberals can't pass legislation, they enact regulations," said Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a co-sponsor of the Senate version, in a written statement. "As we have seen at the EPA and FCC, unelected bureaucrats can advance a radical, liberal agenda when it loses legislatively or in the courts."
REINS will face resistance in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and Obama will surely veto it if it passes, but Senate Republicans—from Tea Party-supported freshman Rand Paul of Kentucky to party stalwarts Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah—signal that they'll fight for it. Hatch argued in a statement in February that "Americans across the nation are tired of this Administration putting too much power in the hands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats who are intent on sinking our economy through promulgating job-killing, anti-competitive and anti-business regulations."
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