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Congressman Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) joined his colleagues in the U.S. House of Representatives to pass H.R. 3438,   the REVIEW Act, to prevent “high impact rules” from taking effect until legal challenges to the regulations are settled in court. The legislation would relate to regulations with over one billion dollars of annual costs. Over the last 15 years, federal agencies have finalized and proposed more than 30 rules that fit that definition.   

“Too often the executive branch is proposing and implementing regulations they know are on shaky legal ground,” said Latta. “By the time a court overturns an expensive new rule, it’s often too late to recover the cost imposed on our economy — including the loss of jobs. The REVIEW Act makes sure that states and businesses won’t be forced to implement a new major regulation until after the matter has been settled by the courts.”

Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency implemented the Mercury Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule which costs close to $10 billion annually. When MATS went into effect in 2012, it required compliance within three years. During that time, 70% of regulated entities came into compliance despite court challenges. A number of businesses closed facilities in order to comply with the new regulation. This year, the Supreme Court found the rule invalid and sent it back to a lower court. However, the majority of the economic costs had already been incurred despite the potential that MATS could still be ruled null and void.

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