[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 4 (Monday, January 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H157-H158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REGULATORY TRANSITION ACT OF 1995

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. DeLay] is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.


                       balanced budget amendment

  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I take this hour, or I was going to take this 
hour, to highlight the fact that I am introducing a bill establishing a 
moratorium on Federal regulations, but I think I will take at least the 
beginning of my time to answer some of those on the other side of the 
aisle in this obviously orchestrated theme and strategy to try to kill 
the balanced budget amendment.
  All the talk that has gone on on this floor and over the weekend 
about how we should show how we are going to balance the budget before 
we actually vote on a balanced budget amendment is just that, it is 
nothing but talk. Most of the people that have spoken against the 
balanced budget amendment today and over the weekend, including the 
President of the United States, are against the balanced budget 
amendment. Those Members that are more senior that have had an 
opportunity to vote on a balanced budget amendment have voted against 
the balanced budget amendment. This is a very feeble and frankly I say 
a really silly attempt to kill the balanced budget amendment, try to 
stir up the American people against the balanced budget amendment, and, 
of course, is the cynicism of politics by fear that goes on in this 
place and in this town all the time. Any time anybody wants to come 
down here into this town and into this well and wants to impose fiscal 
responsibility on the Federal Government, they run out people and 
horror stories about, oh, we're going to turn widows out in the street 
and children are going to go hungry.
  The point is, ladies and gentlemen, is this government is headed into 
disaster. We are running up debt on our grandchildren that is immoral. 
Unless we impose discipline on this Federal Government, we will never 
balance the budget, and they do not want to balance the budget because 
they love printing money to pay for their social programs.
  It sounds ridiculous to me, in fact I challenge the Democrat side of 
the aisle to show us where you laid out what you would do to implement 
the equal rights amendment. Everyone over there wants to pass the equal 
rights amendment to the Constitution but when did you lay out how we 
were going to do it before we passed it? It is crazy.
  We have to have the discipline of the balanced budget amendment first 
to force this Congress to make those tough decisions. Let me tell you 
something: We are going to show the American people a balanced budget 
and how we are going to get to the balanced budget amendment.
  It is politics as usual. They want to control the whole issue right 
here in Washington, DC. By calling for laying out the cuts before we 
pass a balanced budget amendment, that means they want the control and 
they do not want the American people to have a say in it. We want the 
American people to have a say in it.
  What is going to happen in this House at the end of January, we are 
going to pass a balanced budget by this House and we are going to send 
it over to the Senate, they are going to pass a balanced budget 
amendment, then it is going to be sent to the States for ratification 
by three-fourths of the legislatures and the governments that are 
closest to the people, the State legislatures.
  While that is going on, and that is a process we have to go through, 
we are going to lay out a budget this spring that will show the 
American people how we will get to a balanced budget by the year 2002.
  We have to have the discipline first. Then we will tell you how we 
are going to do it while they are ratifying it in the States. Then the 
people will decide whether they want the balanced budget amendment to 
the Constitution, not a bunch of politicians in Washington, DC.
  That is what the elections were on November 8. That is what they were 
all about. The American people are tired of this place making all their 
decisions for them.
  That is what we are going to do. We are going to pass the discipline 
first, then we are going to lay it out and tell how we are going to get 
to a balanced budget amendment. Then hopefully the States will ratify 
it and we will be on the road to a true balanced budget in this Nation. 
That is what the people want.
  I am sorry it went off like that because my staff is just probably 
tearing themselves apart. I was supposed to come down here to talk 
about regulations and I will do that now.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here today to introduce the Regulatory Transition 
Act of 1995, legislation establishing a moratorium on Federal 
regulations.
  Regulations are out of control, and only going to get more so under 
this administration. Measured by the number of pages in the Federal 
Register, in which all new regulations are published, Mr. Clinton's 
first year saw the most regulatory activity since President Carter's 
last. The page total for 1993 was 69,688 pages, the third highest total 
of all time.
  This corresponds to an increase in the number of regulatory 
bureaucrats. From 1985 to 1992, regulatory staffing increased by over 
20 percent, to almost 125,000 employees. However, the number of Federal 
Government employees devoted to implementing regulations was 126,815 in 
1993--an all-time record. And the administration's budget for fiscal 
year 1995 proposed increasing that number to 129,648.
  The average American had to work full time until July 10 last year to 
pay the costs associated with Government taxation, mandates, and 
regulations. This means that 52 cents of every dollar earned went to 
the Government directly or indirectly.
  On November 8, 1994, the American people sent a message to 
Washington. They voted for a smaller, less intrusive Government. An 
important step toward reaching this goal is curtailing these excesses 
of Federal regulation and redtape that are now estimated to cost the 
economy over $500 billion annually. This burden leads to job loss, 
slower productivity growth, reduced competitiveness, and higher prices 
for consumers. Small businesses--the job-creating engines of our 
economy--spend at least a billion dollars a year filling out Government 
forms, according to the Small Business Administration.
  Although regulations are often well-intended, in their implementation 
too many are oppressive, unreasonable, and even irrational. I have 
given these examples before, but I would like to give them again 
because they make my point so well:
  One company that inadvertently wrote a name on line 18 rather than 
line 17 was fined $5,000 by the EPA.
  A drycleaner was fined for not posting a piece of paper listing the 
number of employee injuries in the last 12 months, when in fact there 
were no injuries during that time. [[Page H158]] 
  Detailed safety data sheets are required for such dangerous materials 
as Joy dishwashing liquid, chalk, and even air.
  OSHA has classified children's teeth as hazardous waste.
  On November 10, the Clinton administration released its Unified 
Agenda of Federal Regulations, which outlines its plan to pursue over 
4,300 rulemakings in the next fiscal year. It is difficult to believe 
that all of these 4,300 rulemakings have to be completed and 
implemented before the 104th Congress can take the opportunity to 
consider regulatory reform. The American people will not tolerate a 
rush to new regulations by the entrenched bureaucracy before the 104th 
Congress can even attempt to make appropriate changes in the law.

  Proof of this sentiment is evident in the recently formed Project 
Relief, a broad-based, nonpartisan coalition of over 200 organizations 
and individuals representing businesses, trade associations, citizen 
advocacy organizations, social groups, think tanks, minority groups, 
state and local officials, and others. These various interests have 
come together in this push for comprehensive reform and are working 
closely with both the House and the Senate on this front.
  In order to have the opportunity for orderly consideration of 
regulatory reform issues by the whole Congress--Republican and Democrat 
Members alike--the new majority leadership respectfully asked the 
President on December 12, 1994, to order a moratorium on all Federal 
rulemaking, with appropriate exceptions. Sadly, the President declined 
to issue such an order.
  We have, therefore, no choice except to deal with the regulators 
ourselves, and we do so with this legislation. The Regulatory 
Transition Act of 1995 proposes the moratorium that the President 
refused to order, indicating that it is to be business as usual in the 
Federal bureaucracy. That is not the message sent by the American 
people in the last election.
  Through the introduction of this bill and the hearings that will be 
held on it, the administration and others will be given the opportunity 
to justify why all of the regulations placed into effect since the date 
of the last election should remain in full force without the 
possibility of reconsideration as a result of any regulatory reforms 
enacted by the 104th Congress.
  I would like to make clear that the bill does not suspend any 
existing or new regulation that responds to an emergency or is 
necessary because of an imminent threat to health or safety, or which 
is essential to the enforcement of criminal laws. The President, acting 
on the written request of an agency head, is charged with the 
responsibility for making this determination.
  Additionally, the bill does not suspend regulations that reduce or 
streamline regulatory burdens rather than imposing new ones.
  Some bureaucrats forget that it is the Congress that makes the laws, 
delegates the power to issue regulations implementing the laws to the 
agencies, and controls the standards and processes by which the 
regulations are made by the agencies.
  Make no mistake. A Federal regulation is a law that can affect life, 
liberty, and property of Americans. Fairness, justice, and equity must 
be reflected in the laws of the land, including Federal regulations.
  The 104th Congress should undertake a thorough review of Federal 
regulations, starting with the way they are made and enforced, and make 
such adjustments to the statutes of this land as are necessary to 
reflect the mandate of the American people. No such thorough review has 
been possible for some 40 years. It is a daunting but welcome task. It 
cannot be achieved overnight, nor even in the first 100 days of this 
Congress, but we can make a start. That start will be impeded if 
legions of new regulations go into effect before even the initial 
consideration for regulatory reform and relief can be given.
  Introducing this bill with me today is Congressman David McIntosh, 
who is the chairman of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee's 
Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs. I look forward to working with him 
on this very important issue.

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