Public Citizen Applauds Bipartisan Rejection of REINS-Styled Amendment to Defense Legislation
June 14, 2018
Public Citizen Applauds Bipartisan Rejection of REINS-Styled Amendment to Defense Legislation
Statement of Amit Narang, Regulatory Policy Advocate, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division
Note: Today the U.S. Senate, on a bipartisan basis, rejected an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act modeled after the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. The amendment would have required congressional approval of new regulations issued by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.
The Senate was right to reject the radical REINS-styled amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act on an overwhelming and bipartisan basis.
The legislation this amendment was based upon, the REINS Act, would block the most important regulations that protect consumers, public health and safety, our environment, and the economic security of hardworking Americans by allowing just one chamber of Congress to veto major new protections.
REINS supporters ignore the fact that Congress already can challenge new regulatory protections using the Congressional Review Act – which Republicans used with reckless abandon at the beginning of this Congress to overturn more than a dozen commonsense safeguards. It was a cynical ploy to pay back corporate donors and lobbyists. REINS would be the Congressional Review Act on steroids.
Public Citizen hopes this resounding defeat for REINS finally will put to rest this extreme attack on public protections.
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