According to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), the
House will take up and is expected to pass regulatory reform
legislation after the Independence Day recess. The first effort will be to pass
H.R.
4078, which would impose a moratorium on any new federal regulation, save for health and
emergency, until unemployment drops below six percent nationally. The Majority Leader said that he will work with Chairman Lamar
Smith (R-TX) and the Judiciary Committee to schedule as many of these proposals
as possible throughout July.
The Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act
of 2012, HR 4078, sponsored by Rep.Tim Griffin (R-AR) would put a moratorium on
new significant federal regulations until the national unemployment rate
stabilizes at or below 6 percent. The President could waive the moratorium by
Executive Order and issue significant regulations for certain specific reasons,
such as national security. With the consent of Congress, during the moratorium
period the President may take any other significant regulatory action necessary
to protect the public health, safety, or welfare. A significant regulatory
action taken during the moratorium would be judicially reviewable, and a small
business that successfully challenges such a regulation could recover attorney's
fees.
The bill would define a ``significant regulation’’ as one that
costs the economy $100 million or more, creates a serious inconsistency or
otherwise interferes with an action taken or planned by another agency, materially alters the budgetary impact of
entitlements, grants, user fees, or loan programs, or raises novel legal or policy
issues.
After
conducting hearings on the bill, HR 4078 was reported out of the Judiciary
Committee by a 15-13 vote. There is a Senate companion bill, S 1438, sponsored
by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), whose only demonstrable difference is that it
would set the unemployment trigger for a regulatory moratorium at 7.7 percent.