Continuing his commitment to reducing burdensome and costly federal regulations that stifle economic growth and job creation, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-3) has co-sponsored the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act.

The legislation, which passed the House during the last Congress with Luetkemeyer’s support and a bipartisan majority, would require each chamber of Congress to approve regulations estimated to have an annual economic impact of $100 million or more. The bill never received a vote in the Senate.

According to the American Action Forum, an independent research institution, new rules created by the Obama Administration in 2012 cost our economy $216 billion and created 87 million hours worth of paperwork, nearly doubling its previous record.  The group also determined that new rules under the Obama administration have cost the economy a total of $518 billion so far, adding that we should expect to see new regulations costing our economy about $155 billion in 2013.

“Missourians and Americans everywhere are tired of having job-killing federal regulations forced upon them by the executive branch and this legislation would reverse that troubling trend,” Luetkemeyer said. “The American people, through their elected representatives, should be able to decide which major regulations should be approved or rejected, not unelected Washington bureaucrats.”