[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 7 (Tuesday, January 12, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S52]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               SCRUB ACT

  Mrs. ERNST. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the Searching 
for and Cutting Regulations that are Unnecessarily Burdensome Act--more 
affectionately known as the SCRUB Act. This past summer, my colleague 
Senator Hatch and I introduced this legislation to help free American 
families and small businesses from the unnecessary burdens of our 
regulatory system. I am pleased to mention that the bill passed the 
House last week on a bipartisan basis.
  For too long, our Nation's innovators and employers have been trying 
to comply with a swath of outdated, duplicative, or obsolete 
regulations that hamper their growth and creativity. Many of these 
regulations also come with stacks of paperwork requirements that force 
our small businesses to spend time on filling in the blanks rather than 
filling in jobs. The SCRUB Act would peel back these types of 
regulations so our businesses can focus on doing what they know best: 
innovating and creating jobs.
  The purpose of this bill is to take an objective and in-depth look at 
major regulations that are at least 15 years old and could be repealed 
because they have, No. 1, achieved their goal and there is no threat to 
the problem reoccurring; No. 2, technology or market changes have made 
the regulation unnecessary; or No. 3, they are ineffective or overlap 
with other Federal or State regulations.
  For decades, lawmakers and Presidents on both sides of the aisle have 
recognized the need to unleash our small businesses and job creators 
from rules and regulations that don't make sense. When new rules are 
proposed, there is very little, if any, attention paid to how the new 
rule will work with the hundreds of other rules that came before it. 
This buildup of rules is a cumulative burden on our businesses which 
ultimately slows job growth and hits families even harder who are 
already struggling to make ends meet. In fact, according to one study, 
if the cost of all of these regulations was considered in an 
independent country--all of the costs of these rules and regulations--
it would be about the 10th largest economy in the world.
  Let's face it: The more expensive it becomes to make a product or 
deliver a service, the more money the consumer will have to dig out of 
their own pockets to pay for it. It is those families who are working 
multiple jobs to provide for their kids who are going to be hit the 
hardest.
  This bill is how we start to solve that problem. The SCRUB Act 
establishes a bipartisan, blue ribbon commission to give a fair and 
thoughtful review of our Nation's existing regulations. Once the 
commission is finished with their review, they would provide 
recommendations to Congress and we would have an opportunity to vote on 
them.
  If an agency wants to impose a new regulation, they can do that under 
the SCRUB Act, but they would have to offset the cost of that new 
regulation by repealing an existing one that is of equal cost and has 
been deemed unnecessary or outdated by the commission.
  I know Iowa families do this. They know how to prioritize. Why can't 
our Federal agencies? We simply cannot allow the buildup of unnecessary 
and costly regulations over time.
  I will end with just one last comment. Rules and regulations often 
have unintended consequences. It is our responsibility as lawmakers to 
not only recognize when this happens but to then proactively fix it.
  The SCRUB Act is a commonsense solution that forces lawmakers and our 
agencies to be honest about their regulatory system by fixing the rules 
that need fixing and dropping those that have outlived their useful 
purpose.
  I thank Senator Hatch for his leadership on this, and I urge all of 
my colleagues to support this legislation.

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