DOGE tackles the bureaucracy — Congress must finish the job
To understand the urgent need for the Department of Government Efficiency, we need only turn back the clock four years.
In 2021, the Biden administration issued 3,257 regulations with the force and effect of law. During that same year, Congress, the body in charge of actually writing laws, passed only 81.
As a result, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimated that regulations cost nearly $2 trillion, or 9% of U.S. gross domestic product, in 2021.
How much do federal regulations cost you? Well, for the average household, it’s between $16,000 and $23,000 each year.
DOGE’s MISSION
Given these facts, can anyone doubt the need to deconstruct an “overbearing and burdensome administrative state?”
In November, the American people voted for solutions to high inflation and a poor economy. Reining in the runaway administrative state is a good place to start.
The good news is that the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in West Virginia v. EPA and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo give us a golden opportunity to take control back from the administrative state.
That’s one reason DOGE was created.
Writing in RealClearPolicy late last year, James Valvo, Americans for Prosperity’s chief policy counsel and the executive director at Cause of Action Institute, offered DOGE a path forward to ensure lasting change.
His six-step plan included:
- President Trump should immediately direct all federal agencies to review existing rules to determine which ones are beyond their statutory authority.
- Informing Congress which rules are unlawful and that the agency will immediately begin the rescission process.
- Agencies should also announce that they won’t enforce the questionable rules during the rescission process.
This process might take longer, but rescissions have a better chance of withstanding a judge’s review.
In February, President Trump issued an executive order outlining DOGE’s mission. It largely tracks with Valvo’s suggested path forward.
The president’s executive order is a step in the right direction. Everyone should applaud the administration’s attempts to pull agencies back from the areas where they currently exercise authority they were never given.
PLACING THE SPOTLIGHT ON CONGRESS
But we didn’t get to our current point overnight. Building and expanding the current web of regulations took a lot of time and decades of congressional inattention.
While DOGE’s activities provide a critical jump start for reining in government waste and the administrative state, Congress must act if we hope for permanent change.
The House’s newly created DOGE subcommittee is a good start. It will take cooperation between Congress and the administration to make regulatory rescissions stick.
But Congress should go further. It needs to establish procedures making regulatory oversight easier. This includes:
- Enacting the Midnight Rules Relief Act, which would allow the legislative branch to reject multiple regulations in a single resolution rather than one at a time.
- Passing the REINS Act, which would require that all significant new regulations receive congressional approval before implementation.
Overregulation, like overspending, is a choice. Congress can use this opportunity to reassert its constitutional authority.
As the largest grassroots network in the country, Americans for Prosperity is ready to lead the charge to cut needless regulations, balance the budgets, and restore fiscal sanity in America.
If you want to be part of the movement that’s bringing positive, meaningful change from sea to shining sea, click here to learn how you can get involved with AFP.
