House GOP Has It Backwards: Regulatory Process Needs Less Corporate Capture, Not More Congressional Dysfunction

For Immediate Release: March 10, 2023

Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org, (202) 588-7742

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are taking the wrong approach to regulation, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards said in a letter to the chair and ranking member sent Thursday night.

“To tackle the pressing challenges we face as a nation – including the climate crisis, growing economic inequality, and racial injustice – we must have a robust, responsive, and inclusive federal regulatory system. We do not have such a regulatory system today,” the letter reads. “Instead, after decades of neglect and underinvestment, our regulatory system is now rife with delay, unbridled corporate influence, inadequate transparency, and weak public accountability. The regulatory system has also failed to keep up with innovation and technological advances, and it must do more to properly account for social justice and equity impacts.”

Today marks the reintroduction of the Stop Corporate Capture Act, which would foster greater public input in the regulatory process, promote scientific integrity, and restore our government’s ability to deliver results for workers, consumers, public health, and the environment. Instead, House Judiciary Republicans are backing the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act of 2023, H.R. 277, which would make it even harder to regulate in a system that is already struggling.