WASHINGTON – On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) joined Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and seven of his GOP colleagues in reintroducing the Unnecessary Agency Regulations Reduction Act to reduce burdensome government regulations and more efficiently dispose of outdated, duplicative, or unnecessary agency regulations. This legislation will create a mechanism to eliminate multiple regulations originating from federal executive branch agencies in a joint resolution.

The Unnecessary Agency Regulations Reduction Act is endorsed by Heritage Action, FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, the National Taxpayers Union, the R Street Institute, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Sen. Johnson said, “The Unnecessary Agency Regulations Reduction Act will afford taxpayers relief from burdensome and outdated regulations. This legislation is a great step towards reducing regulatory burden and limiting the explosive growth of government.”

The Unnecessary Agency Regulations Reduction Act would create the following process:

• Beginning two years after enactment, the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) will annually—

• Compile and maintain a list of all planned agency major rules or sets of major rules for the period covered by the submission; and
• Compile a list of outdated, duplicative or burdensome agency regulations to consolidate or repeal.

• OIRA will also consider GAO’s Duplication Overlap and Fragmentation (DOF) annual audit of programs to identify any duplicative, outdated, or burdensome regulations associated with the programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives identified in their report.
• The OIRA Administrator will include the list of major rules in each of the President’s Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions reports.
• No later than 30 days after the OIRA Administrator submits the list of major rules to Congress, each appropriate congressional committee shall review and then compile the final list of regulations to consolidate or repeal into a single joint resolution.
• This legislation is tied to the Congressional Review Act, which requires the measure to receive expedited consideration in each house of Congress.

Sens. Johnson and Scott are joined on this legislation by Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), James Risch (R-Idaho.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).

The full text of the bill can be found here.

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