CSS Backs House Judiciary Hearing, Legislation to Strengthen the Regulatory Process
Dec. 1, 2021 | Download PDF
Rep. David N. Cicilline
Chair, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law
Rep. Ken Buck
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law
U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman Cicilline and Ranking Member Buck,
The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, a diverse group of hundreds of organizations representing millions of Americans that advocate for effective regulations to protect the public, strongly supports efforts by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law to promote a more inclusive and responsive regulatory process. Today’s important hearing on “The Administrative Procedure Act at 75: Ensuring the Rulemaking Process is Transparent, Accountable, and Effective” represents a crucial first step in these efforts.
The regulatory process is in dire need of reform. Currently, the regulatory process is rife with delay, undue corporate and political influence, limited transparency, weak public accountability, and lack of consideration of racial justice and equity impacts. We agree with the Subcommittee that improving and strengthening the regulatory process is critical to ensuring that our federal agencies are transparent, accountable, and effective at delivering strong regulatory protections for consumers, workers, public health, and the environment.
We encourage the Subcommittee to evaluate legislative proposals that provide a roadmap for reforming the regulatory process, such as the “Stop Corporate Capture Act” introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA). This legislation would reduce special interest influence on the rulemaking process, increase transparency around federal agency decision-making, clear procedural bottlenecks that delay regulatory protections, empower the public to hold agencies accountable for enforcing the rules and build a foundation for consideration of social equity in the rulemaking process.
The American people deserve and expect a regulatory system that works to protect them, not the special interests that federal agencies are supposed to oversee and hold accountable. We applaud the Subcommittee for shining a light on the need to reform the regulatory process and stand ready to assist the Subcommittee in this important work.
Respectfully,
Robert Weissman
President, Public Citizen
Co-chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards
Jack Gillis
Executive Director, Consumer Federation of America
Co-chair, Coalition for Sensible Safeguards
The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards is an alliance of more than 160 consumer, small business, labor, scientific, research, good government, faith, community, health, environmental and public interest groups – representing millions of Americans. We are joined in the belief that our country’s system of regulatory safeguards should secure our quality of life, pave the way for a sound economy and benefit us all.