Today Senators King and Blunt introduced the Regulatory Improvement Act of 2013, which “would create a Regulatory Improvement Commission to review outdated regulations with the goal of modifying, consolidating, or repealing regulations in order to reduce compliance costs, encourage growth and innovation, and improve competitiveness.”
The framework for this new commission is modeled after PPI’s proposal for an independent Regulatory Improvement Commission (RIC). Under this proposal the RIC would review duplicative and outdated federal regulations as submitted by the public with the intention to either remove or improve them. The Commission would be authorized by Congress on an as-needed basis, with bipartisan participation, and would require complete transparency during each stage of the review process. At the end of the review, the RIC would submit a package of regulatory changes to Congress for an up or down vote.
The Regulatory Improvement Act of 2013 is a significant proposal that could have a tremendous economic impact. Regulatory accumulation – the natural accumulation of federal regulations over time – imposes an unintended but significant cost to businesses to businesses and economic growth. No satisfactory process currently exists for retrospectively improving or removing regulations.
PPI congratulates Senators King and Blunt for introducing a bill that could finally address this long-standing issue that affects the ability of America’s businesses to grow, invest, innovate, and succeed.
PPI’s complete proposal for a Regulatory Improvement Commission is outlined in the report “Regulatory Improvement Commission: A Politically-Viable Approach to U.S. Regulatory Reform.”
