Regulations dictate just about every aspect of our daily lives, from where we live to what we eat and how we work. Some rules make sense. Others don’t. And new rules are multiplying faster than ever.
This week, the ACCF and members from a diverse range of industry sectors joined to announce the launch of the Coalition for Regulatory Innovation. Our aim is to help Americans understand the thicket of state and federal rules and champion commonsense reforms that remove unnecessary burdens on the economy. The Coalition will highlight some of the most misguided rules and outline principles for reform.
Our country’s ever-growing tangle of state and federal rules are constricting job growth and stifling business investments throughout the broader economy. Regulations have proliferated so swiftly that it would be impossible to unravel this knot one rule at a time.
Our existing regulatory regime was designed for an earlier era, not the rapid change of today’s economy, much less the next era 10 or 20 years from now. The current patchwork of rules is ill-equipped to govern emerging technologies or the changing face of American commerce. We need to fundamentally redesign the system by modernizing the rules that don’t work and establishing a better process to enact new ones.
Congress needs to establish basic parameters to modernize federal rule-making. In our view, there are three pillars of effective, bipartisan regulatory reform: transparency, scientific integrity and accountability. Rulemaking should be conducted out in the open and backed up by objective, unimpeachable science, while being overseen by officials who are held accountable to the voters.
Enacting real reforms will unshackle the economy and generate faster job creation. The most dynamic, innovative economy in the world shouldn’t have the most outdated regulatory system. Our Coalition will offer policymakers and voters a roadmap to modernize the economy. Americans deserve better. We want to help them adopt those improvements.
For more information about the Coalition for Regulatory Innovation, view this op-ed penned by National Association of Manufacturers President Jay Timmons and North America’s Building Trades Unions President Sean McGarvey.
