Ted Cruz's clever way to cut red tape via NAFTA

Source: Washington Examiner | January 25, 2018 | Washington Examiner

You would think Democrats would jump at the opportunity to curb President Trump’s powers. Yet, they have made it clear that they would filibuster a bill to do that.

Their hostility is directed at the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny, or REINS, Act, which gives lawmakers on Capitol Hill power to review executive actions. And given their determination and ability to filibuster they can stop it in its tracks.

But Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is proposing an innovative way to check the progress of the runaway regulatory state by making it part of a renegotiated NAFTA deal.

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Republicans have pushed the REINS Act for years. It would require congressional approval of every new regulation that costs more than $100 million. About three percent of all regulations reach that threshold. In short, the legislation would, if enacted, prevent the executive branch from becoming its own legislature.

The House passed this bill a year ago. The Senate’s Government Affairs Committee approved it last year, as well. Trump has pledged to sign it. But a Democratic filibuster has killed it in the Senate.

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This is where Cruz’s gambit, which he explained to the Washington Examiner in a meeting in his Senate office, comes in.

A 2015 bill restored Trade Promotion Authority, which provides for expedited consideration of any legislative changes prescribed by trade deals. Legislation covered under TPA is not subject to filibuster or amendment.

TPA, of course, has to do with trade and barriers to trade. Costly regulations are often concrete barriers to trade. Environmental regulations, safety regulations, labor regulations, and others keep out foreign competition. Free trade requires that all such regulations be narrowly tailored to a legitimate purpose such as protecting the environment, consumers, workers, etc. But governments and industry often collude to create regulations that mostly protect domestic business from foreigners.

So when Trump renegotiates NAFTA, one way to guard against regulations that hobble business would be by sticking the REINS Act into NAFTA. Then a bare majority of the Senate could pass it and Trump could sign it into law.

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