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House Passes Bill To Eliminate Burdensome Rules

The House approved an AFS supported measure on Jan. 7 requiring retrospective reviews of federal regulations to eliminate burdensome rules and preventing new regulations from being enacted without repeal of an existing regulation.  The measure, Searching for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome (SCRUB) Act, H.R. 1155, passed in a 245-174 vote. Specifically, the bill would create a presidentially appointed commission to find rules that should be amended or repealed because they are overly burdensome or outdated, with goal of reducing cumulative costs by 15%. The measure would also require federal agencies to cut or modify regulations already on the books before they can issue new ones. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hasn’t acted on a companion bill, S. 1683. The Administration has threatened to veto the bill, calling it unnecessary and saying it would slow down the regulatory process.