Climate Change Weekly # 544 —Regulations May Be REINed in Soon
By H. Sterling Burnett
Published May 23, 2025
Regulations May Be Reined in Soon
Active Forest Management Better for Forests, Drought
Regulations May Be Reined in Soon
Nearly a decade ago Congress considered two pieces of legislation that would have fundamentally altered the way regulations are adopted, defending personal and economic freedom in the process.
One of the laws, the Regulations of the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act) would have put Congress back in the driver’s seat on regulations, reestablishing the constitutional separation of powers under which Congress alone was delegated the power to write law. The second law, the Secret Science Reform Act, would have improved the practice of science used to underpin regulations.
Combined, the laws would have benefited the economy and the nation’s people by better ensuring the science used to justify regulations was top-quality, tested, and verified, and that regulations produced benefits in excess of their limits on individual freedom and in excess of their economic impact. Importantly, if REINS were adopted, Congress could be held accountable for any major regulation after it became law. The legislature couldn’t blame faceless, unaccountable bureaucrats when people were angry about a new regulation and any harms they perceived it as imposing.
Unfortunately, despite support from first-term President Donald Trump, neither bill reached his desk for a signature.
https://heartland.org/opinion/climate-change-weekly-544-regulations-may-be-reined-in-soon/
