House passes bill to block high-cost regulations under litigation

Legislation to block all high-cost rules from taking effect while being challenged in court sailed through the House Wednesday, despite Democratic opposition.

{mosads}The House passed the Republican-backed Require Evaluation before Implementing Executive Wish lists, or REVIEW Act, in a 244-180 vote largely along party lines. Only 4 Democrats voted for the bill.

Under the legislation, introduced by Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.), all rules with an economic impact of more than $1 billion annually would automatically be stayed by a court for 60 days to give opponents time to file lawsuits.

If a lawsuit is not filed within 60 days, the stay would be lifted. 

Democrats argued the rule will slow an already cumbersome and slow-moving rulemaking process.

“Please. We all know the judicial review process can take months, sometimes years if the appellate process reaches the U.S. Supreme Court,” Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) said on the House floor.

“Rather than ensuring predictability and streamlining the rulemaking process, this bill would have the opposite effect.”

Republicans claim the bill is needed to keep businesses from wasting billions of dollars coming into compliance with a regulation that could ultimately be thrown out by a court.

“This is money in economic recovery and job creation we cannot afford to waste,” Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said.

Democrats noted that the administration has already threatened to veto the bill.

In a statement Tuesday, the administration said the legislation would “promote unwarranted litigation, introduce harmful delay and in many cases thwart implementation of statutory mandates and execution of duly enacted laws.”

The House voted down an amendment offered by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) to exempt any rule that reduces the cost of healthcare for Americans over age 65 and an amendment from Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) to exempt any rule related to increasing the affordability of higher education.