President Biden Ought to Put Down his Pen

Press Release

According to the National Association of Manufacturers, the average U.S. firm spends the equivalent of 21 percent of its payroll every year just to comply with government regulations. For context, the average manufacturing worker in the United States makes nearly $65,000 per year according to the U.S. Census Bureau and pays an estimated 15.2% of their income back out in federal, state, and local taxes. If Congress attempted to double taxes on working families, it would be front page news. Yet, every year regulations silently reduce employer payrolls by even more, and nothing is said about the cost to workers and small businesses.

Regulations play an important role in the health and safety of American workers and help prevent bad actors from putting our workforce and environment at unnecessary risk. However, it is equally important we balance the need for commonsense regulations against the devastating impact too much bureaucracy can have on Americans' daily lives.

To restore this balance, last week I introduced bipartisan legislation to repeal a regulation which, if enforced, would interfere with patients and their doctors and make it harder for patients in rural areas to access health care when and where they need it most.

This little-known Medicare rule requires health care providers at Critical Access Hospitals to certify, upon admission of a patient on Medicare, the patient will not remain an inpatient at the hospital for longer than 96 hours. Hospitals which fail to discharge or transfer such patients before the cut off face non-payment. There are over 60 in-state Critical Access Hospitals Nebraskans rely on for care. While the Trump administration recognized the burden this rule placed on rural hospitals and, under a COVID relief provision, instructed Medicare not to enforce it, it could be restored at any time. Fully repealing this 96-hour rule will ensure seniors can access care and providers can focus on what matters most: caring for sick patients.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of obstructive regulations just like this. This is why I supported President Trump's "One in, Two Out" executive order (EO) which required two existing regulations be repealed for each new regulation proposed. This executive branch "self-check" forced federal agencies to carefully deliberate whether a regulation was truly needed and, if so, identify other regulatory burdens they could remove.

Much to my disappointment, one of President Biden's first actions the day he took office was to undo "One in, Two out". He then proceeded to sign more EOs in his first year than any president since President Ford. According to estimates from the American Action Forum, these EOs added more than $201 billion in regulatory costs and 131 million hours in new paperwork yearly. Doubling down on big government bureaucracy is not how you grow an economy.
Fortunately, Congress has a tool at its disposal called the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA allows Congress to take an up or down vote on regulations proposed by the executive branch and--if both the House and Senate vote to disapprove--the regulation is nullified even if it has already taken effect.

At the beginning of the Trump presidency, Republicans in Congress utilized the CRA to overturn over a dozen rules put forward by President Obama, who said he did not need to work with Congress because he had a "pen and phone."

In 2015 and 2016, I led the effort in the House to use the CRA to block the EPA's oppressive Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule which sought to unconstitutionally enlarge EPA authority over land and water. After my resolution easily passed both the House and Senate, it was vetoed by President Obama. Much to the relief of farmers and ranchers across the country, in December 2018, President Trump's EPA announced a replacement rule which both honored relevant court decisions and included a more appropriate definition of navigable waterways.

Last year, contrary to clear messages sent by the American people, President Biden's EPA proposed a new WOTUS rule. President Biden would be wise to learn from President Obama's mistakes and put down his pen. My preference is always to pursue policy changes through the legislative process, and I will use every tool at my disposal to rein in out-of-control rulemaking.

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