Omnibus Used To Block Regulation

In the omnibus bill passed yesterday by the House, there were a lot of hidden goodies for opponents of regulation (but, of course, not as many as they wanted):

The 1,500-plus page omnibus spending bill contains provisions to constrict rule-making at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission, and would block a wide array of regulations at agencies across the federal bureaucracy.

The legislation takes aim at light bulb standards, restrictions on gun exports and a proposal to allow electronic voting in union elections. It would block regulators from enforcing both workplace regulations on family farms and a rule facing poultry producers, among a host of other regulations.

Taken together, the provisions amount to a victory for House Republicans, who have railed against President Obama’s regulatory policies as bad for business and for the economy.

However, proposals for stronger regulatory rollbacks, including language that would have blocked EPA power plant emission rules crucial to Obama’s climate change initiative, were left out of the bill.

The light bulb provision is largely symbolic with little effect but the others will have real consequences.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.