James Lankford

There is a Heitkamp-Lankford bill that would help with that, that is already sitting out there, by the way, that our Committee has passed and you have supported.

But that standard of evidence was not published before.

So that is not a concern to you that that would come out?

If a guidance is promulgated by any entity and, fairly quickly, industry, businesses, whoever it may be, States--contacts you and say, this has above $100 million of cost, and they can show you pretty quickly how and why, is there a…

I am going to open up the microphone just for an open conversation here.

OK, can I jump in here as well, just based on what you were saying on that, because what Senator Heitkamp is saying is the crux of the issue.

These smell like regulations and it certainly looks like they ended up acting like regulations.

But any options still violates, because it makes the statement very clearly, local decisionmakers set this. There is not a Federal guideline for it.

That public consternation that came back at the agency and entities obviously floods into our office when they raise the question, what is the Federal Government doing to us rather than for us?

What is the standard of what the agency should send to you for review?

So at this point your statement would be it does not have the force of law, but it is your understanding.

I currently have two lawsuits against my university right now because we chose to use preponderance of evidence instead of clear and convincing.

I cannot seem to draw that standard from anything that I read in Title 9.

But you know--I am sorry to interrupt--you know as well as I do, those were coming out very rapidly after the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas.

But you are looking for overlap as well, and what I am trying to figure out is--I would assume you are trying to get as many significant guidance documents as possible.

Are you confident that OIRA sees all the agency guidance documents that could potentially be significant?

Do you have the ability to be able to force a pause?

We have dropped down, as I mentioned, to one carrier. At the same time, several of our rural hospitals have closed in the last several months.

In its current form I couldn't support it.

Thank you very much, Chairman.

But are often partisan placements.

No public entity should be exempt from oversight.

It should inform to say we are thinking about this.

I think you could also accomplish some of those same things with advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and get more people at the table earlier.

If anyone is keeping score on this, it has been 20 years since Congress has passed a budget without a CR before it.