Most of us have personal experience dealing with government’s seemingly endless meddling in everyday affairs.  I regularly hear from constituents concerned about overly burdensome rules and regulations handed down from bureaucrats in Washington.  These regulations hinder innovation and job creation and are costly to businesses and individuals.

It is my firm belief that the federal government must be honest and forthright about the effects of new mandates and regulations, which is why I authored the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act.  UMITA (H.R. 899) is bipartisan legislation which would ensure that elected representatives and bureaucrats who impose costly federal mandates know exactly what they are asking the American people to pay. Too often, regulators fail to consider whether the costs of compliance, measured in lost business, lost jobs and diminished economic growth; outweigh the benefits of a proposed rule.  UMITA would address that by building on the bipartisan success of the 1995 Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, closing loopholes and requiring agencies to publicly disclose the total cost of new rules.  This includes both direct enforcement costs and indirect costs passed onto consumers, businesses, and state and local governments.

H.R. 899 is an important – and achievable – first step toward a more accountable and transparent regulatory process and I am pleased that the House of Representatives recently passed this legislation with a bipartisan 234-176 vote.  The bill awaits action in the Senate, and I hope for speedy consideration and passage in that body.  In any case, I will continue working to restore accountability to the federal government’s overly large and growing regulatory agencies.

You can find more information about UMITA here.  I hope you will find the information useful in learning more about my efforts to enhance government transparency and regulatory certainty.  If you are interested in receiving regular updates about my work in Washington, I encourage you to visit my website, foxx.house.gov and sign up for my e-newsletter.  As always, if you have feedback on this legislation or any other issue where I can be of assistance, please let me know.

Virginia Foxx
Member of Congress

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