CEI Offers Plan for Congress to Reform Regulations, Help America Prosper

Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offered a set of ambitious, achievable regulatory reform goals for the 116th Congress. The report, Free to Prosper, identifies ways for Congress to clear away federal regulations that needlessly interfere in American lives and livelihoods, making it harder for consumers to get the best products and services and harder for American businesses to succeed and compete in a global economy.

“Unaccountable regulatory agencies dominate how we live, work, play, build, travel, prepare food, and heal one another – and perversely drive people away from commonsense decisions,” said Kent Lassman, CEI president. “Americans already have an outstanding system to set the rules by which we live and work. Our Constitution requires Congress to make the laws. CEI’s Agenda for the 116th Congress points the way toward a restoration of lawmaking in the Congress and a more resilient economy for all of us.”

CEI’s congressional agenda offers nine policy areas ripe for reform, along with a set of specific reforms for each (one example for each policy area listed below).

1. Regulatory reform and agency oversight – Implement a bipartisan regulatory reduction commission and regulatory sunsetting procedures.
2. Trade – Institute a rule explicitly forbidding the president from enacting retaliatory trade barriers.
3. Banking and finance – Build on the Jumpstart our Business Startups Act by expanding the amount that can be raised through equity crowdfunding.
4. Energy and environment – Amend the Clean Air Act to clarify that it never delegated to the EPA the authority to make climate policy.
5. Private and public lands – Enact regulatory takings compensation under laws and programs like the Endangered Species Act.
6. Technology and telecommunications – Deny the FCC the authority to regulate either the provision of broadband Internet access or services that use the Internet.
7. Labor and employment – Pass legislation to enable individuals who prefer the flexibility of contractor status to choose that instead of being pushed into an employment relationship.
8. Food, drugs, and consumer freedom – Direct the FDA to create an easier path to approval for tobacco products that are demonstrably less harmful.
9. Transportation – Examine mileage-based user fees as a national replacement for fuel tax revenue.

View the report, Free to Prosper: A Pro-Growth Agenda for the 116th Congress, on cei.org.

 

Kent Lassman

Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) offered a set of ambitious, achievable regulatory reform goals for the 116th Congress. The report, Free to Prosper, identifies ways for Congress to clear away federal regulations that needlessly interfere in American lives and livelihoods, making it harder for consumers to get the best products and services and harder for American businesses to succeed and compete in a global economy.