Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Johnson. I thank Ranking Member Conyers for the leadership that he provided the committee for so many years. I thank Chairman Goodlatte and Congressman Graves for working in a bipartisan way. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is common sense. It calls on the government to bring transparency to the major rules. Once an agency finalizes a major rule, that is the end of it. They are not required to review the benefits or the economic impacts. This amendment, however, holds the agency accountable by requiring that it look back and assess the costs and benefits of that rule after it has taken effect. Should the cost of the regulation exceed the proposed costs under the rule, then, under this amendment, this agency will report back the increase to the Congress. This amendment would facilitate a dialogue between the agency and the stakeholders. If the costs have gone up, then the agency must open up a comment period to hear the stakeholders and consider possible modifications or alternatives to reduce the cost and increase the benefits. We do that in Congress. Every time we pass a piece of legislation, we go back and fine tune the legislation, and I think we need to do the same thing here. Again, we must not allow regulations to run out of control. We should hold agencies accountable. This amendment will bring transparency and begin those conversations between stakeholders and the agencies. Again, I thank Congressman Graves for this bipartisan amendment.”