Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
Major legislative actions during the early part of the I I 5th Congress have undermined the central argument for regulator reform measures such as the RELVS Act, a bill that would require congressional approval of all new major regulations. Proponents of the RELVS Act argue that it would make the federal regulator system more democratic by shifting responsibility for regulatoy decisions away from unelected bureaucrats and toward the people's representatives in Congress. But separate legislative actions in the opening of the 115th Congress only call this argument into question. Congress's most s 'gni/cant initiatives during this period-its derailed attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and its successful efforts to repeal fifteen regulations under the Congressional Review Act exhibited a startling lack of democratic deliberation. These repeal efforts reveal how the REINS Act would counterintuitive@y undermine ky democratic elements of the current regulatoy process by rendering it less transparent and deliberative.
Recommended Citation
Cary Coglianese and Gabriel Scheffler, What Congress's Repeal Efforts Can Teach Us About Regulatory Reform, 3 Admin. L. Rev. Accord 43 (2017).