Letter to U.S. House: A Vote for REINS Act is a Vote for America’s Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses

By SBE Council at 6 June, 2023, 9:13 am

Dear Member of the U.S. House of Representatives:

On behalf of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council), I urge you to vote in favor of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act (H.R. 277), which is scheduled for a floor vote this week. SBE Council and our nationwide network of entrepreneurs and small businesses have long supported this important reform to bring greater accountability and balance to the regulatory process.

H.R. 277 requires Congressional approval for every new major rule – defined as having an economic impact of $100 million or more – before such a rule takes effect. Congressional approval also covers new regulations that substantially stoke inflation or have other ‘‘significant adverse effects’’ on the economy. The REINS Act is a meaningful regulatory reform measure that serves as an important check on costly regulatory overreach. It will have a positive effect in terms of how regulations and the regulatory process affect small businesses.

For far too long, Congress has abdicated its responsibility under the Constitution by delegating its legislative responsibilities to executive branch regulatory agencies, avoiding the hard choices involved in lawmaking. Thus, it’s no surprise that small businesses and entrepreneurs routinely contend with overreaching and costly federal rules. Because many landmark federal statutes -governing everything from banking and finance, the workplace and healthcare, consumer protection, and energy and environmental policy – are vague and open-ended, federal regulators are able to make law themselves, becoming legislator and regulator all in one.

The REINS Act would reassert Congress’s paramount legislative authority, which is desperately needed during this period of hyper-regulatory activity by a host of regulatory agencies, including the Department of Labor, Federal Trade Commission, National Labor Relations Board, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Security and Exchange Commission, to highlight a few agencies whose regulatory activities threaten entrepreneurial risk-taking, small business growth and competitiveness, and the U.S. startup ecosystem.

Members of Congress on both sides of the political aisle often lament the fact that regulatory complexity and overreach harms small businesses and local economies. The REINS Act is a legislation solution to correct overreach and the lack of accountability that is harming small businesses, and every member should support its underlying principles and therefore passage.

Sincerely,

Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO