10.30.15

Sullivan to Obama Administration: Where is Your Plan to Lift Anemic Economic Growth Rate?

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) released the following statement after yesterday’s announcement by the Commerce Department that the U.S. economy limped along at only 1.5 percent GDP growth last quarter:

“It’s remarkable that quarter after quarter, year after year, the Obama Administration seems to be satisfied with such tepid economic growth, which clearly undermines the future of our country and makes addressing challenges like the deficit and exploding debt all the more difficult.

“Where is the President and where is the Secretary of the Treasury in laying out a plan to escape what Washington now calls the ‘new normal’ – sub-2 percent GDP growth? We have to get back to traditional levels of American growth—3 to 4.5 percent—that we have had over the past 100 years. One important way to get there is by reducing the morass of federal red tape and permitting delays that have been stifling American growth, small business startups, infrastructure development and job creation for far too long.”

Senator Sullivan has introduced S. 1944, The RED (Regulations Endanger Democracy) Tape Act, a bold step in helping to grow our country’s economy by freezing the growing number of federal regulations promulgated each year.

Regulatory compliance and economic costs are estimated to be $1.88 trillion a year. If it were a country, U.S. regulations would be the world’s 10th largest economy, ranking behind Russia and ahead of India.

Summary of The RED (Regulations Endanger Democracy) Tape Act: 

  • This straight-forward legislation would help rein in the out-of-control regulatory system in the United States. Using a simple one in, one out method, new regulations that cause a financial or administrative burden on businesses or the people of the United States would need to be offset by repealing an existing regulation.
  • Regulations include not only those issued by Executive Order from the President of the United States, but also regulations that are issued by an agency in the form of memorandums, guidance documents, bulletins, and press releases.
  • If an agency wants to issue a new regulation or amend an existing regulation that would create a financial or administrative burden, an agency must repeal one or more existing regulations.
  • If an agency head refuses to offset a new regulation by repealing an existing regulation, cost of living adjustments will be withheld until the agency abides by the law.
  • Twice a year, each agency will be required to publish, through the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, a list of new, incoming regulations, as well as the existing regulations that are being repealed to comply with the one in, one out law.
  • Incoming and outgoing regulations must be published at the same time and without delay.
  • This one in, one out rule would not apply if an agency is only seeking to repeal a regulation without introducing a new one.

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