Hinson: Reining in the Biden Administration’s regulatory regime

President Biden’s regulatory regime is a nightmare for hardworking Iowans. In just one year, President Biden’s Administration added over $200 billion in new regulatory costs through their heavy-handed rulemaking, and his excessive executive orders have cost taxpayers more than $1 trillion. This overregulation is pulling down our economy and fueling the inflation that is crushing everyone from seniors on fixed incomes to parents trying to feed their kids.
 
On President Biden’s first day in office, he canceled the Keystone XL pipeline permit. With the stroke of a pen and without approval from Congress, he killed up to 60,000 jobs, cost our economy up to $9.6 billion, and began his war on American energy that has driven up costs. Since then, he has signed an executive order that would require half of all vehicles sold in America to be electric by 2030 and attempted to “cancel” at least $400 billion in student loan debt – aka transfer debt onto the backs of other hardworking taxpayers. These are three of the most egregious of President Biden’s 107 executive decrees that destroy jobs and drive inflation.
 
When Americans elected a Republican House majority, they sent a clear message that they expected a return to fiscal responsibility – less spending, less regulation, and more accountability. They rebuked President Biden’s overreaches and overspending, and our Conference heard this message loud and clear.
 
This week, House Republicans passed the Reduce Exacerbated Inflation Negatively Impacting the Nation (REIN IN) Inflation Act, legislation that would require the Administration to publish the inflationary impact of any executive order with an estimated impact of at least $1 billion. This is about transparency – President Biden shouldn’t be able to issue massive executive orders without telling the American people the truth about the full cost. As Iowans suffer from crushing inflation, President Biden has no business making our economic situation worse through out of touch regulations.
 
Additionally, I have joined over 140 of my colleagues in supporting the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, a bill that would require every “major rule” proposed by the Administration to be approved by both the House and the Senate before taking effect. Take the Biden Administration’s attempt to return to the Obama-era WOTUS rule as an example. Under this rule, 97% of land in Iowa would be subject to federal regulation, devastating farmers, producers, and landowners in our state. It’s no surprise the Administration circumvented Congress, where WOTUS rightly faces stiff opposition from both sides of the aisle, and forged ahead unilaterally. Our bill would finally put a stop to overreaches like WOTUS and hold the Biden bureaucrats accountable to the people whose money they’re spending and whose livelihoods they’re hurting.
 
Iowa families, farmers, and small businesses have borne the brunt of the Biden Administration’s disastrous and controlling agenda. I will continue working to hold this Administration accountable, proposing commonsense economic policies, and forcing these heavy handed bureaucrats to rein it in.