Reining in the Administrative State: Regulatory and Administrative Law Reform
2025-02-11
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Source: Congress.gov
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for the administrative state and look for ways that we can reform the regulatory and administrative law to work better for everyday Americans. It's no secret that regulatory burdens have reached an all-time high. Regulatory agencies create rules with the force and effect of law. And the number of rules that agencies create is overwhelming. In the final year of the Biden-Harris administration, unelected bureaucrats finalized over 3,000 rules. It's an average of eight regulations per day. By contrast, during the same period, Congress passed almost 150 laws. In other words, the executive branch issued mandates with the force of law over 20 times more often than the legislative branch. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, these regulations impose a total estimated annual cost of $2.1 trillion or more than $15,000 per American household. Some of my colleagues on the other side may claim that because Congress cannot pass laws, agencies feel empowered to take over. Congress was designed to require lawmakers to think deeply about these decisions. Congress was also designed to be accountable to the voters. If our constituents do not like our decisions, then we are voted out of office. Unelected bureaucrats, by contrast, are not politically accountable. This lack of accountability shows. When agencies make these rules, they not only act as a legislator for the country, but often as prosecutors and judges through the administrative process. Agencies often bring enforcement actions in their in-house administrative courts. The same agency that makes the rules also decides to sue if a person broke them. Then to prove that a person broke the rule, the agency tries the case before its own in-house judge. In so-called, quote unquote, independent agencies, commissioners who directly prosecute the case also act as judges on appeal.
The whole system defies logic at this point. The administrative system is set up to regulate the American people into submission, which is entirely at odds with the principles that this country was founded on. Our founders deliberately split the making of laws, enforcement of laws, and judgment of laws into three co-equal branches of government. Our founders were convinced and concerned about exactly the same centralized power we now see in the Administrative State. It does not have to be this way. Last Congress, the Judiciary Committee marked up numerous bills aimed at reforming the Administrative State. The REINS Act, the Midnight Rules Relief Act, the Prove-It Act, the Separation of Powers Restoration Act, and the One Agency Act, just to name a few. All these bills were aimed squarely at the topic we are here to talk about today, reining in the Administrative State. I'm proud of the work this committee undertook last Congress, and I hope for the sake of the American people that we turn these proposals into law this Congress. My colleagues on the other side of the aisle routinely oppose all attempts by Congress to rein in the administrative state. They also criticize President Trump for taking steps to control the administrative state. They ignore that the Constitution makes the president the leader of the executive branch. They will do everything in their power to protect the unelected bureaucrats in the administrative state. Why? Because these unaccountable bureaucrats do the bidding among colleagues in the minority. This is true even though Americans rejected their views in the most recent election. Today we have an opportunity to hear from witnesses who have deep experience in the regulatory reform area. Ms. Wadd and Mr. Smith are entrepreneurs. and deal with the crushing weight of regulations every day. Mr. Smith has even faced the administrative court system and was forced to pursue a case all the way to the Supreme Court to vindicate his constitutional rights.
Dr. McLaughlin is an expert in regulatory and economic analysis and has written extensively on how damaging regulatory burdens are on the economy. These witnesses are perfectly prepared to supply members of the committee with the required information to better inform us as we work on possible solutions and consider the proposals that have already been introduced. I want to thank the witnesses for appearing before us today and look forward to hearing what each of you has to say on the topic. I now recognize the ranking member, Mr. Nadler for his opening statement.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, holding a hearing today on, quote, reigning in the administrative state is a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. As we speak, Elon Musk and his band of near-teenaged accomplices are systematically working their way through the executive branch, knocking down agency after agency while undermining the rule of law and shredding the Constitution along the way. Musk and his team have unprecedented access to our most sensitive and personal data.
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