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House Republican lawmakers are pushing legislation this week to counter President Obama’s efforts to circumvent Congress by having federal agencies push the envelope in federal rulemaking.

Under Obama, the agencies have adopted various new interpretations of their rulemaking authority that effectively allow the president to legislate without lawmakers. The Republicans' legislation seeks to roll back the agencies' interpretations of the processes that have allowed them to act independently of Congress, which GOP lawmakers say has gotten out of hand.

"[The president's] promise to use his ‘pen and phone’ and unilateral executive action on so many major issues can only encourage that attitude throughout his administration," Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, chairman of the Small Business Committee, told the Washington Examiner.

On Wednesday, the House is set to vote on the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act, legislation that would expand when federal agencies are required to produce analyses of the economic impact of their new rules on state and local governments.

The House is set to vote Thursday on the Regulatory Flexibility Act, legislation sponsored by Chabot that would require agencies to describe in minute detail a potential new rule’s "cumulative economic impact … on small entities," such as businesses.

Republican aides say the two pieces of legislation are being pushed on their own merits, but they add that they also would have the effect of addressing the president’s "regulatory overreach."

"These bills are an attempt to change the way government works," said a House leadership aide.

Under Obama, the Environmental Protection Agency has adopted new interpretations of the Clear Air Act to justify new rules and the Labor Department is revisiting the Fair Labor Standards Act to create new workplace overtime regulations, to cite just two examples.

Republican aides note that their bills are merely update existing laws meant to limit agency rulemaking.

"Everything [in the Regulatory Flexibility Act] was in the [original] Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980. The need for this came from the fact that the agencies took some liberties in interpreting the act," one GOP aide said. The updated version will create "less room for interpretation."

The legislation would require agencies to consult more extensively with the businesses groups affected by the new rules. The final report would make the results public, among other provisions.

The Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act, sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., would update the 1995 Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. That Clinton-era legislation required federal agencies to consult with state and local officials before enacting rules that would impose new costs on them.

The new legislation is intended to close a loophole in a 1995 law that allowed agencies to skip the process if they decided that it does not involve a new rulemaking but is a reinterpretation of an existing regulation. The updated version would require the process in virtually all cases as well as expand its scope to include the impact on local economies.

Foxx spokeswoman Sheridan Watson said the legislation was "designed to improve — not hinder — the regulatory process. The reasoning behind it is that better information will lead to better deliberation and result in a better decision."

Taken together, the legislation would slow the rulemaking process and open the new rules up to more criticism by forcing the agencies to state in detail who the rules would hurt and how.

Enacting the legislation may be an uphill battle for its supporters. It would likely be filibustered by Democrats in the Senate, though they may be able to attract enough pro-business moderates to pass it.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/gop-seeks-to-counter-efforts-to-bypass-congress/article/2559698