GOP senator criticizes debt-ceiling deal for allowing Biden appointee to waive direct spending plans

Conservative Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who is threatening to drag out the Senate’s consideration of legislation to raise the debt limit, says the regulatory reforms in the package are “a mere illusion.”  

On Tuesday, Lee highlighted language in the bill that would empower the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to waive the requirement that agencies submit plans to reduce direct spending to offset the estimated costs of new rules. 

The bill includes provisions that would establish for the first time in law a pay-as-you-go requirement for executive branch actions that increase spending.  

The issue gained attention this year after critics of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act claimed the Biden administration implemented tax incentives for renewable energy production and use so broadly that it dramatically increased the cost of the legislation.  

Under the proposal crafted by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), agencies would have to submit a plan to the Office of Management and Budget to reduce spending to offset any new rule that would increase direct spending by more than $1 billion over 10 years or more than $100 million in a single year. 

It would require agencies to identify low-cost implementation options for actions mandated by law. 

But Lee says the regulatory reforms are being overhyped because the bill allows Biden’s budget director, Shalanda Young, who negotiated the deal, to waive those requirements if she judges it “necessary” to do so for the delivery of essential services or for “effective program delivery.” 

“As it turns out, the much-touted regulatory reform in the debt-ceiling deal can be waived by a Biden political appointee — one who can be fired at will by @POTUS,” Lee tweeted. “This language renders the bill’s regulatory reform a mere illusion.” 

Lee tweeted an image of the bill’s language stating the OMB director may waive the requirements for administrative action that affect direct spending if she “concludes that the waiver is necessary for the delivery of essential services; or is necessary for effective program delivery.”