In advance of their first idea forum today, the chairs of the Task Force on Reducing Regulatory Burdens released their mission statement. This mission statement, laying out the goals of the task force, marks the next step in the development of a bold, pro-growth agenda that Republicans will present to the country in the coming months.

Republican leaders launched the development of this agenda in January, announcing that it will address five issue areas: national security; jobs and the economy; health care; poverty, opportunity, and upward mobility; and restoring constitutional authority. Taking a bottom-up approach, committee-led task forces will develop this agenda, holding idea forums to take input and ideas from all members.

For additional updates, visit Speaker.gov/ConfidentAmerica.

Reducing Regulatory Burdens Mission Statement and Charter

Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX)
Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI)
Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX)
Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)
Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT)
Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX)
Small Business Committee Chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH)
Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA)

Mission: Make it easier to invest, produce and build in America with a modern and transparent regulatory system that relieves the burden on small businesses and other job creators and encourages financial independence, while balancing environmental stewardship, public safety, and consumer interests.

Principles:

1. Ensure federal regulations are a last resort and minimally intrusive.

• Except where federal regulations are necessary, only used for matters that are not best addressed by state and local governments or by non-regulatory approaches.
• Achieve statutory objectives without picking winners and losers and constraining compliance options.

Energy and Environment

2. Fully consider the many benefits of increased domestic energy production in regulations.

• Environmental considerations that prevent new energy production and energy infrastructure projects should be fairly balanced against the many direct and indirect benefits of such projects, including benefits for individuals, families, small businesses and energy security.
• Energy and mineral production on public lands should be competitive with energy and mineral production on state and private lands.

3. Efforts to reduce, control, and remediate pollution should achieve real environmental benefits and be compatible with job creation and economic growth.

• Public health and welfare benefits of regulations should be balanced against the public health and welfare costs, including the impact of lost jobs or higher energy bills on low-income families and the nation’s ability to compete.
• All evidence used by agencies in support of a regulation should be based upon sound science, transparent and open to third-party and public review.
• States and local communities know best how to protect the lands and waters where they live and work.

4. Incorporate the strongly positive trends in environmental quality and public health in recent decades into the regulatory decision-making process.

• Some regulatory programs have achieved their goals, and further rounds of regulation are no longer needed.

Financial Services

5. Empower Americans to achieve financial independence.

• This is best achieved through more choices, not more regulations.
• Enable financial institutions and financial technology companies to serve their customers first with new, innovative products and services that are policed for fraud and deception.

6. Protect taxpayers from paying for more Wall Street bailouts.

• Force failing banks and financial institutions to go through bankruptcy like any other company, rather than a government-run, taxpayer-subsidized “resolution.”

7. Demand accountability from financial regulators and financial institutions.

• Reduce the cost of unnecessary or duplicative regulations imposed by Washington bureaucrats so that Americans have greater access to affordable financial products and services.
• Ensure both regulators and banks are accountable to Congress and the American people.

8. Unleash opportunities for small businesses, innovators, and other job creators.

• Ignite the entrepreneurial spirit by increasing capital formation and financing options to allow more Americans to create, build, and innovate.

Small Business

9. Ensure agencies follow current laws to assess and mitigate the impact of new and existing regulations on small businesses.

• Small businesses generate over 60 percent of net new private-sector jobs and employ approximately half of the private-sector workforce in the United States, yet shoulder a disproportionate share of the federal regulatory burden. 

Frivolous Legal Proceedings

10. Ensure that our legal system is efficient and fair and that wasteful abuses of it are not allowed.