At Committee Hearing, Oversight Democrats Condemn Republican Crusade to Rollback Regulatory Protections

Washington, D.C. (June 15, 2023)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability, led Democrats in defending the use of federal regulations and rulemaking authority to benefit the American public and strengthen democracy.

"Regulations are a legal tool in democracy to serve the public good. Republicans want to dismantle certain government regulations or ‘red tape' to allow corporations and industry to regulate themselves—even when the public health and safety and the people's environment are on the line. Democrats are committed to ensuring that government protects and benefits the health and safety of the American people even while preserving the liberties and rights of the people," said Ranking Member Raskin in his opening statement.

The hearing included testimony from Mr. Casey B. Mulligan, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago; Mr. Adam J. White, Co-Executive Director, C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School; and Mr. Anthony Campau, Principal, Clark Hill Public Strategies. The hearing also featured testimony from minority witness Ms. Sally Katzen, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence, New York University School of Law.

Committee Democrats made a powerful case for the profound benefits that evidence-based regulations have on American life.

• Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton explained how the regulatory process is designed to ensure Americans' voices are included: "The purpose of the regulatory process is to ensure that the federal government is accessible and accountable to the public. Every rule in the Federal Register is finalized after a thorough and intensive public comment period. And public comments are crucial, because who better understands the impact of proposed regulations than the people who will be affected by them?"

• Rep. Cori Bush emphasized: "It's pure fantasy to expect entire industries to self-regulate without government oversight. Regulations like workplace safety standards enforced by OSHA, environmental protection provisions enforced by the EPA, FDA requirements for food production, all keep our communities safer."

• Rep. Gerald E. Connolly highlighted the work activists have done to inspire regulations that have significantly improved American's lives for over a century: "Upton Sinclair, at the turn of the 20th century, wrote a book called The Jungle. It led Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican president, to actually insist on regulation on food safety for the first time in America." He added, "Ralph Nader wrote a book called Unsafe at Any Speed. That book led directly to more intensive regulation of the auto industry." He also pointed out, "Rachel Carson wrote a book called Silent Spring that led to the environmental movement in the United States and the creation of EPA under a Republican President, Richard Nixon." Ms. Katzen agreed that these regulations were good for the public and added, "Your questions also show that books are good and should not be banned."

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained that regulations are essential protections: "This Committee has overseen PFAS poisoning. Communities that are often low-income, that don't have anyone to protect them, rural, urban, inner-city, wherever—they are poisoned when they are not protected, and that is the actual term. People discuss the term ‘regulation.' What these are, are protections for people—often who have no one else to protect them, who do not have a corporate legal team to protect them, who have endured loss, who have endured disease. … This is why we have regulations."

Committee Democrats called out Republicans for their incoherent anti-regulatory crusade that puts corporate profits over public safety and well-being.

• Rep. Melanie Stansbury highlighted the Republican double-standard on regulation: "Our friends across the aisle call for deregulation of companies and deregulation of fundamental public health, safety, environmental rules. But, yet, they want to regulate our bodies, they want to regulate who we love, they want to regulate the kind of books we can read, and they want to regulate the identities of our children and their lives."

• Rep. Jasmine Crockett underscored how Texas's anti-regulation mindset led to disaster during the 2021 polar vortex: "We couldn't keep our own lights on. And it was all because they wanted to avoid red tape." She also recounted how an anti-regulation mindset contributed to the train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, and said: "The cost was human lives. Unfortunately, seemingly, some people don't want to consider human lives as an actual cost. The only cost that they ever talk about is dollars. Well, let me be clear—I'm not here because of corporate dollars. I'm here because of people."

• Rep. Robert Garcia emphasized that the point of federal regulations is to help people, not to do the bidding of large corporations. Rep. Garcia emphasized, "I would like to think that we get elected to Congress and are here in government because we actually believe in doing the most good. ... I'm one of those that believes government is here to actually help people." Listening to the Republicans attack regulatory protections, he added, "This hearing seems to be about fighting for big polluters and not actually people that need our help."

• In response to Republican claims that the Biden-Harris Administration is burying Americans in red tape, Rep. Jared Moskowitz noted, "The Trump Administration finalized more federal rules in the last year of its administration than any other final year of any presidency in American history." He also drew attention to Republicans' obsession with regulating Americans' personal freedoms: "My colleagues across the aisle used to be the party of smaller government, and I wish they still had credibility in wanting to shrink the size of government. They want more government now—government in women's bodies, government in the bedroom, government in the library, government in corporate investments, government in Disney World."

Committee Democrats highlighted how the Biden-Harris Administration is using its regulatory authority to protect the safety, security, and prosperity of the American people.

• When Ranking Member Jamie Raskin asked if an effective, functioning regulatory state promotes the freedom of the people, Ms. Katzen responded: "I believe it does, and it promotes the economy. It's interesting that we're talking about death by a thousand regulations at a time when the growth of jobs in this country is terrific. We've got less unemployment than ever and the strength of the economy is remarkable."

• Rep. Shontel Brown contrasted the people-centered regulatory action of the Biden-Harris Administration with the ideologically-centered regulatory action of Republicans: "While Democrats work to protect Americans, my [Republican] colleagues attempt to regulate our history and culture. We regulate pollutants, they regulate books. We regulate tax cheats, they regulate the LGBTQ community. We regulate assault weapons and they regulate abortion." She continued, "Through rulemaking, President Biden is taking decisive action to ban ghost guns, expand access to over-the-counter hearing aids, remove chemicals from our air and drinking water, and so much more."

• Rep. Maxwell Frost raised the critical importance of the Biden-Harris Administration's rule to better regulate stabilizing braces used to make pistols more lethal, pointing out: "Pistol braces were used to make modified assault weapons in mass shootings in Boulder, Nashville, Colorado Springs, and Daytona. They need to be regulated as assault weapons."

• Rep. Stephen Lynch highlighted that agency rulemaking would benefit from the Biden-Harris Administration's proposal to bring even greater transparency, equity, and inclusivity to the process. Ms. Katzen agreed, noting, "President Biden on day one made it clear that he wanted everyone at the table, not just some select few who had dollars in their pockets, and that it was important to be able to open the process to what I call the regulatory beneficiaries—those who are expected to benefit from the regulations."

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