An opinion piece that appeared in Politico on January 31st, by Senator Pryor and Senator Portman misleadingly paints the Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA/H.R. 3010) as a regulatory savior. This could not be further from the truth. In reality, the RAA would create new hurdles and delays, blocking implementation of an untold number of public health and safety rules. It would add layers of new bureaucratic processes before even simple public health rules could be enforced. It would empower special interests to use the courts to delay protections that have been years in the making.

Two disturbing examples of what RAA will do if enacted: After a 10-year fight, Congress authorized and the Consumer Product Safety Commission developed new safe crib standards. America’s most vulnerable population – infants – finally received protection against collapsing cribs that injured and killed far too many. RAA would make have made it easier for special interests to contest the new crib standards in court, delaying further these critical protections; The new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s mercury and air toxics standards, in development for over 20 years would not have been enacted under RAA. Special interest would have asked that these rules be further analyzed by the EPA, causing power plants to keep emitting mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that is very harmful to children and fetuses. Under RAA costs to business will be considered first before public health benefits.

Federal agencies that now focus on protecting the public will have to focus on choosing the cheapest rule possible, even when the rule does less to keep people safe. The whole regulatory system will change for the worse, because the main goal will be to save regulated industries money, forcing the agencies to put the interests of business first by having to determine costs to industry. This would lead an override of at least 25 important health, safety, and environmental laws that Americans depend on to keep them safe. For example, the RAA would conflict with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which says that the OSHA must act to protect workers when “reasonably necessary or appropriate to provide safe or healthful employment.”

The RAA would also add more than 60 new analytical requirements to a rulemaking process already plagued by long delays! It already takes an average of 4 to 8 years for an agency to finalize and enforce significant rules, and the RAA could take another 2 to 4 years to that process. These delays have real consequences for real people: preventable illnesses and deaths, lost wages, a decrease in our overall quality of life, and personal financial catastrophes. The list goes on. Blocking, weakening or delaying critical standards and safeguards will result in more deaths in vulnerable age-groups, such as children and the elderly. We will see a greater prevalence of asthma, cancer and respiratory diseases as clean air and clean water standards are threatened.

We understand both Senator’s concerns about smart regulations, but Congress should not be jeopardizing federal agencies’ ability to enforce laws designed to protect our health and our children’s children.