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House passes bill to overturn midnight regulations en masse
The Hill ^ | January 4, 2017 | Lydia Wheeler

Posted on 01/04/2017 2:18:12 PM PST by jazusamo

Legislation to allow Congress to repeal in a single vote any rule finalized in the last 60 days of the Obama administration sailed through the House Wednesday, the second time in less than two months.

The GOP-backed Midnight Rule Relief Act, which passed the previous Congress in November, was approved largely along party lines by a vote of 238-184 on the second day of the new Congress, despite Democratic opposition.

If passed by the Senate and signed by President-elect Donald Trump, the legislation would amend the Congressional Review Act to allow lawmakers to bundle together multiple rules and overturn them en masse with a joint resolution of disapproval.

The White House has already threatened to veto the bill if it were to make it to President Obama's desk before he leaves office.

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) criticized Republicans for bringing the bill to the floor so soon.

“I’m surprised that without hearings, without opportunity for amendment, we are now considering a measure that has this much opposition,” he said.

The American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC), which claims to represent a network of more than 250,000 businesses, sent a letter to members of the House on Wednesday urging them to oppose this “anti-regulatory” measure.

“This would be like taking a chainsaw into surgery,” David Levine, ASBC’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

“Businesses depend on good regulations to set clear boundaries and rules for fair competition on a level playing field.”

Instead, Levine claims that the Midnight Rules Relief Act would enable Congress to undo batches of rules without any consideration of their individual merits.

While debating the bill on the floor Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) appealed to the freshman class of the new Congress. Issa informed new lawmakers that Congress has only once, in 2001, successfully repealed a rule by way of a resolution under the Congressional Review Act.

“All this legislation does is allow for us to dispose of one or more regulations in an expedited fashion in this body and have it seen in the same form in the Senate,” he said. “It doesn’t change the underlying law.”

He explained that the House, the Senate and the president all have to agree on the resolution to repeal a rule.

“Only one regulation has ever been repealed,” he said. “It’s been 16 years and the few that will likely be considered under this act and underlying law will be just that, a relatively few regulations that are believed to be unnecessary on which the House, Senate and president concur.”

But Democrats argued that the bill would allow Congress to erase months of President Obama’s regulatory agenda.

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) accused Republicans of bringing a bill to gut regulations a day after trying to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics.

“They like the idea of the fox guarding the hen house. They want to put themselves in control of the hen house, so what do they do today come back not with a jobs bill, but a regulations bill, something that protects the health safety and welfare of Americans, little ones, elderly, workers and people who are consumers,” he said.

“They will tell you that gutting regulations helps to enhance job creation, but nothing can be further from the truth when you consider the last eight years.”

Johnson noted that 15 million jobs were created under President Obama despite the regulatory regimes established under the Affordable Care Act and the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform law.

“This is an attempt to bring the standard of living Americans have come to enjoy to a halt,” he said.

The House rejected a motion from Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fl.) to send the bill back to committee.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 115th; 115thcongress; bho44; democrats; lameduck; lameducklegislation; midnightregulations; narcissiam; obama; regulationreversal; regulations; speakerryan; trumptransition; winning
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To: stylin19a

A lobby firm for RAT initiatives.

...

with a fraudulent, misleading name.


21 posted on 01/04/2017 2:33:38 PM PST by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: Osage Orange
Why in the world....would anyone vote for this moron?

Like many other elected idiots, he's a perfect representative of his constituency.

22 posted on 01/04/2017 2:34:31 PM PST by NorthMountain (Northmountain)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin; Red Badger

BUMP!


23 posted on 01/04/2017 2:35:09 PM PST by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: jazusamo

President Obama‘s lame duck administration poured on thousands more new regulations in 2016 at a rate of 18 for every new law passed ..... the proof that it was an overwhelming year for rules and regulations is in the Federal Register, which ended the year Friday by printing a record-setting 97,110 pages.

******************************************************

The Dems deserve “NO quarter given” on this stuff. Eight years of getting whatever they want & cramming all sorts of cr@p, perverted & otherwise, down our throats to the detriment of ‘we the people’ who voted Trump in to clean up this mess, is ENOUGH.


24 posted on 01/04/2017 2:42:10 PM PST by Qiviut (In Islam you have to die for Allah. The God I worship died for me. [Franklin Graham])
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To: jazusamo
“Businesses depend on good regulations to set clear boundaries and rules for fair competition on a level playing field.”

Businesses have been using the power of government regulation to inhibit competition.
It's crony socialism.

25 posted on 01/04/2017 2:42:35 PM PST by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: jazusamo

And of course who do the Fake Media go to but a reliable Democrat AstroTurf front group.

Who We Are and What We Do.
The American Sustainable Business Council is a network of businesses and business associations that have committed themselves to the triple bottom line of People, Planet, and Profit. ASBC members believe that sustainable business is good business, and a sustainable economy is a prosperous and resilient one. The Council works for policy change to support this vision:

We advocate for legislation and other policy actions.
We facilitate testimony by leaders of sustainable businesses before Congress and other policy bodies.
We provide a platform that enables policy makers and policy experts to engage with business executives, owners, investors, entrepreneurs, and other business professionals.
We help our members and others engage with the media on matters relating to sustainability.
We conduct polling of the owners of sustainable, socially-responsible businesses, to understand their views on policy issues.
We commission research on policy issues that involve sustainability.
We communicate to businesses, policy makers, and the media how a sustainable economy based on triple bottom line principles is good for business and good for America.


26 posted on 01/04/2017 2:49:26 PM PST by MNJohnnie ("The political class is a bureaucracy designed to perpetuate itself" Rush Limbaugh)
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To: jazusamo

what good will another bill do? I was informed that We already have rules against an outgoing president creating chaos on their way out the door- a law the dems don’t think they are beholden to- so why not just enforce the current rule?


27 posted on 01/04/2017 2:49:58 PM PST by Bob434
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To: CIB-173RDABN

Forgot one:

All laws\regulations will be uniformly applied to all; no exemptions shall be provided.


28 posted on 01/04/2017 2:49:59 PM PST by i_robot73 ("A man chooses. A slave obeys." - Andrew Ryan)
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To: jazusamo

“Dems are getting a dose of their own medicine. “

They are squealing like pigs!


29 posted on 01/04/2017 2:52:31 PM PST by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement, I'd be unstoppable!)
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To: jazusamo

“This would be like taking a chainsaw into surgery,” David Levine, ASBC’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.

Okay, but if you take one into an abattoir...


30 posted on 01/04/2017 2:52:51 PM PST by avenir (I'm pessimistic about man, but I'm optimistic about GOD!)
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To: jazusamo

So much winning..


31 posted on 01/04/2017 2:56:04 PM PST by MNJohnnie ("The political class is a bureaucracy designed to perpetuate itself" Rush Limbaugh)
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To: jazusamo

So much winning..


32 posted on 01/04/2017 2:56:06 PM PST by MNJohnnie ("The political class is a bureaucracy designed to perpetuate itself" Rush Limbaugh)
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To: bigtoona
I bet most of the 14.1 million jobs are people that took a second job to make up for hours being cut in their regular job.

Precisely!

33 posted on 01/04/2017 3:01:05 PM PST by dware (I love waking up in a world with President-elect Trump!)
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To: MNJohnnie

Yep, it’s a great time for the country...Looks like President-elect Trump has shown many of the GOP how to grow some backbone.


34 posted on 01/04/2017 3:03:33 PM PST by jazusamo (Have YOU Donated to Free Republic? https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: jazusamo

IIRC, that is about how the Dems forced through Obamacare during Obama's first term. Pelosi even wanted to try a 'deem it passed' tactic so they wouldn't even have their fingerprints on voting for that hunk of trash.


35 posted on 01/04/2017 3:03:40 PM PST by TomGuy
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To: Moonman62

with a fraudulent, misleading name.

Any org with "sustainable" in the name is suspicious.


36 posted on 01/04/2017 3:05:29 PM PST by 867V309 (Lock Her Up)
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To: Osage Orange

And yet, they do. Every single time. Says more about them than it does about him.


37 posted on 01/04/2017 3:14:38 PM PST by 75thOVI ("The crews of all submarines captured should be treated as pirates and hanged". Sir Arthur Wilson)
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To: jazusamo

Soros is very sad, indeed, along with his paid monkeys in the seditious democrat party.


38 posted on 01/04/2017 3:27:43 PM PST by sergeantdave (Cats are like potato chips - you can't have just one...)
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