{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-and-rep-kat-cammack-introduce-reins-act-to-put-power-back-in-the-peoples-hands/", "Dr. Rand Paul and Rep. Kat Cammack Introduce\u00a0REINS\u00a0Act to Put Power Back in the People\u2019s Hands", "2024-09-18", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nSeptember 18, 2024\n\nContact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nDr. Rand Paul and Rep. Kat Cammack Introduce REINS Act to Put Power Back in the People\u2019s Hands\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) and Congresswoman Kat Cammack (R-FL-03) introduced the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act to help put power back in the people\u2019s hands instead of the administrative state.\n\n\u201cThe whims of an unaccountable administrative state should never rule our lives. For too long, an ever-growing federal bureaucracy has piled regulations and red tape on the backs of the American people without any approval by Americans\u2019 elected representatives. The recent Supreme Court decision to dismantle Chevron deference stripped away some of the power it wrongly gave to unelected bureaucrats years ago, but there\u2019s still work to do. By making Congress more accountable for the most costly and intrusive federal rules, our REINS Act would give Kentuckians and all Americans a greater voice in determining whether these major rules are truly in America\u2019s best interests,\u201d said Dr. Paul.\n\n\u201cNameless, faceless, unelected bureaucrats in Washington have had too much power over the American people for far too long. The federal bureaucracy\u2019s rapid growth over the last several decades has resulted in serious damage to the livelihoods of millions of Americans with reckless rulemaking not approved by the body granted Article I authority,\u201dsaid Rep. Kat Cammack.\u201cThe REINS Act is a critical step toward \u2018reining\u2019 in this unchecked power and restoring the lawmaking authority to Congress instead of the executive branch. With SCOTUS\u2019 Loper Bright decision earlier this year, we\u2019ve made solid progress in dismantling Chevron, and I\u2019m encouraged for the future of REINS and what it will mean in stopping executive overreach. I thank Senator Paul for his partnership in the Senate and look forward to earning my colleagues\u2019 support for this legislation in the House.\u201d\n\nCosponsors in the Senate include U.S. Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mike Lee (R-UT), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Rick Scott (R-FL).\n\n\u201cThe American people deserve a voice against unelected bureaucrats mandating burdensome regulations. The REINS Act will ensure major rule changes that could hurt consumers are first put before the people\u2019s elected officials for approval. This legislation will give power back to the people and limit bureaucratic red tape,\u201dsaid Sen. Blackburn.\n\n\u201cThe last thing Montanans want to see is big government overreach and more heavy-handed mandates from Washington. It\u2019s time we give the American people through their elected leaders the power to hold DC bureaucrats accountable,\u201d said Sen. Daines.\n\n\u201cJames Madison said, \u2018It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood \u2026\u2019 We are now in this circumstance where, not only are our laws so voluminous and complex that we can\u2019t read them, but they\u2019re not even written by men and women of our own choosing. This kind of unreviewable legislative discretion has historically been reserved for despots and tyrants. This is tyranny, and we\u2019re going to handle it with the REINS Act,\u201d said Sen. Lee.\n\n\u201cAmerican entrepreneurs and businesses know all too well how bureaucratic regulation can lead to job-destroying uncertainty. By returning lawmaking power to the people\u2019s elected representatives in Congress, the REINS Act is an important measure that will bring greater transparency and accountability to a regulatory system that undermines private sector job creation,\u201dsaid Sen. Rubio.\n\n\u201cThe Supreme Court\u2019s repudiation of the Chevron deference doctrine in Loper Bright is not the end of the battle against the bureaucracy\u2019s unchecked control, but only the beginning. I am proud to co-sponsor Senator Paul\u2019s REINS Act in our efforts to restore power in the Article 1 branch, the people\u2019s branch, and away from these nameless, unaccountable bureaucrats who have governed by fiat for too long. The American people deserve a government that is responsive and accountable to them. That is how the Founders always intended for our government to function when they established this great nation,\u201d said Sen. Schmitt.\n\n\u201cAfter nearly four years of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s gross expansion of the bureaucracy of the federal government and forcing more burdensome regulations on hardworking families, it is time to cut the red tape and Make Washington Work for the American people. I am proud to stand with Senator Rand Paul to hold Washington accountable, get big government out of the way and put some fiscal sense back into Congress,\u201dsaid Sen. Rick Scott.\n\nThe REINS Act also has wide support:\n\n\u201cFour years of unprecedented executive branch spending and a record-setting stream of new rules from unelected bureaucrats in Washington have caused the price of everything to go up at the same time the value of every dollar has gone down. American families are left paying more for less in a broken economy that was roaring just a few short years ago,\u201d said Tarren Bragdon, President and CEO of the Foundation for Government Accountability. \u201cThe REINS Act would empower Congress to free working families from the suffocating weight of the Biden-Harris bureaucracy and cure the cost-of-living crisis dimming the American Dream. The REINS Act cuts to the core of the fundamental question facing our nation at this critical moment in history: Do we want our future determined by unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., or the elected representatives closest to the people?\u201d\n\n\u201cFor years, the executive branch has grown its power and subverted the will of the people by imposing expensive rules and regulations that should require the consent of Congress. No administration should have the authority to place sweeping regulations on every facet of Americans\u2019 daily lives without giving them the chance to weigh in through their elected representatives and fight back when the executive branch skirts the law. Sen. Paul\u2019s updated REINS Act will help restore the legal rights of Americans and the balance of power laid out in the Constitution,\u201d said Ryan Walker, Executive Vice President of Heritage Action.\n\n\u201cFor too long, bureaucrats in the administrative state have imposed trillions of dollars in regulatory costs onto American citizens and businesses as they embark on their personal crusades \u2013 all without needing the support of a single member of the legislative branch. Now that the Supreme Court has overturned the Chevron Doctrine, leaders on Capitol Hill must pass the REINs Act to return Article 1 lawmaking authority to its rightful home in Congress and end the delegation of power to unelected regulators,\u201d said Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh. \u201cWe applaud Sen. Rand Paul for his work to introduce and champion this bill in the Senate. Every member of Congress should support this commonsense plan to create a more representative approach to how the Federal Government imposes the hidden tax of regulation,\u201d said David McIntosh, President of Club For Growth.\n\n\u201cSenator Paul\u2019s updated version of the REINS Act is an essential government reform bill that would strengthen congressional oversight, put a brake on administrative state power, and reinstate accountability in the rulemaking process. Building upon all the good the preexisting REINSAct would do, Senator Paul\u2019s updated REINS Act includes a number of new provisions that would further empower Congress to check big government. Importantly, the bill would require that guidance documents and other forms of \u201cregulatory dark matter\u201d be subject to congressional approval. The bill would also address the concern that rules and guidance documents are not properly submitted to Congress or the Government Accountability Office. Together, these provisions would help give greater scrutiny to the regulatory process \u2013 a move especially important now since the Biden administration has dismantled President Trump\u2019s guidance portals and rewrote the rules of rulemaking with their Modernizing Regulatory Review directive (Executive Order 14,094). These updates are vitally important as the Supreme Court\u2019s recent rejection of the Chevron Doctrine still leaves progressives with many tools in their toolbox to work around Congress and pursue their regulatory pursuits. Ultimately, Senator Paul\u2019s updated REINS Act is a vital step in restoring accountability to the administrative state and in ensuring that the American people are governed by their duly elected representatives, rather than by unaccountable bureaucrats,\u201d said Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., Fred L. Smith Jr. Fellow in Regulatory Studies at Competitive Enterprise Institute.\n\n\u201cRegulatory agencies seem to think they can make any rules they want. The REINS Act was already an important reminder that Congress has lawmaking powers, and executive agencies do not. The new version\u2019s expanded protections make REINS even more urgent to pass,\u201d said Ryan Young, Senior Economist at Competitive Enterprise Institute.\n\n\u201cFederal regulation is out of control. It\u2019s time for Congress to REINS it in,\u201d said James Carter, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. Treasury (2002-06), America First Policy Institute.\n\n\u201cThe REINS Act is desperately needed. We hear a lot about defending democracy today, but we don\u2019t see much real effort from the administrative state to honor the principles of democracy. Senator Paul\u2019s updated REINS Act will make sure that the people\u2019s representatives in Congress will have to approve of any major rules proposed by an unelected administrative agency. If the economic impact of a rule is $100 million or more, it must have congressional approval. This guarantees that we the people have a voice in the regulatory state that has the impact of being law. It would also guarantee individuals the right to use as an affirmative defense that the regulation they are accused of violating do not logically follow from the statute. It would also allow citizens to seek judicial relief when an agency fails to seek or obtain congressional approval. Any who opposes the REINS Act is clearly not a fan of democracy, but rather prefers a system of unelected oligarchy,\u201d said George Landrith, President, Frontiers of Freedom Institute.\n\nBackground:\n\nUnder the REINS Act, once major rules are drafted, they must then be affirmatively approved by both chambers of Congress and then signed by the President, satisfying the bicameralism and presentment requirements of the Constitution. Currently, regulations ultimately take effect unless Congress specifically disapproves.\n\nThe bill defines a \u201cmajor\u201d rule as one that the Office of Management and Budget determines may result in an economic impact of $100 million or greater each year; \u201ca major increase in costs or prices\u201d for American consumers, government agencies, regions, or industries; or \u201csignificant adverse effects\u201d on the economy.\n\nThe REINS Act also includes the following changes from the original bill which has been introduced every Congress since Dr. Paul has been in office:\n\nNew Defense for Individuals:Individuals can argue that the average person would not have known their actions violated federal law if the statute did not clearly state it.\n\nRight to Sue: People can sue to stop enforcement if an agency implements a major rule without getting congressional approval.\n\nLIBERTY Act:Agency guidance with an economic impact of $100 million or more needs congressional approval just like major rules.\n\nDeregulatory Actions Exempted:Agencies do not need congressional approval to withdraw costly or burdensome rules\n\nYou can read the REINS Act HERE.\n\nAlong with introducing the REINS Act, Dr. Paul also recently participated in efforts discussing the impact of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Loper Bright, which overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine.\n\nDr. Paul also joined Sen. Eric Schmitt in his efforts to retake legislative authority away from administrative agencies and place it back where it belongs: the Article I branch. These efforts include the filing of the Separation of Powers Restoration Act (SOPRA), the launching of a working group of Senators that will regularly meet to discuss furthering this goal, and letters to 101 agencies that have published more than 50 final rules since 2000 demanding answers on how current regulatory processes will be handled following the Loper Bright decision.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/dr-rand-paul-and-rep-kat-cammack-introduce-reins-act-to-put-power-back-in-the-peoples-hands/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.6517801452428102, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}