Congressman Geoff Davis announced today that Tri-State colleague Congressman Todd Young [IN-9] will take over lead sponsorship of H.R.10, the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, upon his retirement. 

“Todd Young is one of the hardest-working and most diligent new members of Congress.  He has enthusiastically championed the REINS Act at home and in Washington,” said Congressman Davis.  “Congress has excessively delegated its constitutional responsibility for making the law of the land to unelected bureaucrats for too long.  The REINS Act is one of the most important structural reforms to restore this accountability.  I am confident that Congressman Young will be a tireless champion for the REINS Act going forward.”

“The role of Congress in spurring the economy is to remove obstacles that stand in the way of private sector job growth,” said Congressman Young.  “The best and easiest way we can do that is through regulatory reform.  With the REINS Act, Congressman Davis has come up with a simple and effective method to ensure that federal agencies can no longer bypass Congress with regulations that go beyond the intent of the law.  I look forward to championing this bill that he has put so much time and effort into making a popular, bipartisan solution to our regulatory challenges.”

First introduced by Congressman Davis in 2009, the REINS Act would require Congress to affirmatively approve regulations that cost $100 million or more a year in economic impact (also known as major rules) before they can take effect.  American small businesses spend an estimated $10,500 per employee to comply with federal regulations, with an overall regulatory burden of around $1.75 trillion annually.

Although a bipartisan majority of the House passed the REINS Act last December, the Senate has refused to schedule the legislation for a vote. 

The Senate version of the legislation, sponsored by Senator Rand Paul [KY], has thirty-one bipartisan cosponsors.

The REINS Act has the support of a broad coalition of more than thirty local and national groups and has been included in several economic reform plans, including the House and Senate Republican jobs plans and Governor Romney’s economic plan.  Nationally syndicated and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will recently endorsed the legislation in a column.

The genesis for the REINS Act was a constituent meeting Congressman Davis had in the summer of 2009.  You can read a brief history of the REINS Act here.

To learn more about the REINS Act, visit http://geoffdavis.house.gov/reins/.