House GOP passes anti-regulation bill, asserts KY legislature as ‘most powerful branch’
A bill that would greatly limit the power of state agencies to regulate industry passed the Kentucky House with unanimous Republican support on Friday.
House Bill 6, dubbed the “REINS Act” for “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny,” from Rep. Wade Williams, R-Earlington, disallows state agencies from taking action that isn’t explicitly authorized by the Kentucky General Assembly if it costs more than $500,000 over two years.
During a vote on the House floor Friday, Democrats expressed alarm at how the administration would be hamstrung by the bill.
Republicans, who are 80 members strong in the 100-member House, framed it as an important step to combat government overreach and to assert the legislature’s authority.
Republicans added that the bill did not have anything to do with the fact that Gov. Andy Beshear, who leads most Executive Branch agencies, is a Democrat.
Under the bill, a cabinet can only promulgate an administrative regulation — what agencies post to explain how laws are carried out preceding state action — if its implementation and compliance costs less than $500,000 over two years.
There are a handful of exceptions, including when there is an “imminent threat” to the public addressed, to prevent loss of federal or state funds, to comply with court orders or to regulate certain health facilities.
Williams said the bill combats over-regulation, which he referred to as a “hidden tax.”
“Too often, important, costly policy decisions are made in Frankfort not by the legislators who are elected by their constituents, but by unelected, unaccountable government officials. It is a tenet of our constitutional republic that elected representatives of the people make the laws that we live by,” Williams said.
The bill is a top priority for Americans for Prosperity, a prominent libertarian-leaning advocacy group affiliated with the multi-billionaire Koch family. Two conservative states, Kansas and Indiana, passed similar laws with the group’s backing last year.
House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, R-Paducah, said that the bill affirms the legislative branch’s power.
“It is about a reset to make sure and remove all doubt that the most powerful branch of government is the branch that has the most elected people in it — that power that this country was founded on is spread across 138 individuals,” Rudy said. “We should take our jobs very seriously, and we should never allow unelected bureaucrats to set the policies that affect the everyday lives of Kentucky citizens and somehow, someway, make government just a little bit bigger.”
Democrats took issue with that line of argument.
Rep. Tina Bojanowski, D-Louisville, is a teacher by trade and said that didn’t comport with what she teaches.
“We teach in elementary school that there are three separate but equal divisions of government,” Bojanowski said. “It’s kind of news to me that one is more powerful than the other.”
All Democrats who were present voted no on the bill and all present Republicans voted yes. The final vote tally was 75-19.
Cabinet secretaries themselves have also pushed hard against the bill.
In a letter to Williams earlier this week, Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Goodman said that a majority of the regulations promulgated by the cabinet would not pass muster under the $500,000 cost threshold.
That would severely decrease the cabinet’s ability to “efficiently and effectively protect the Commonwealth from environmental harms,” Goodman wrote.
She also pointed out that the threshold would also bar cabinets from enacting government efficiency measures if the cost is more than $500,000 over two years and raised concerns over the exception not including environmental emergencies.
“As written, the emergency allowances provided in this bill do not extend to environmental concerns and hazards and do not allow for the Cabinet’s action to protect Kentuckians from these harms,” Goodman wrote.
