Comer: The Biden Administration Subverted Congress to Bury America’s Economy Under Red Tape

WASHINGTON – Today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) delivered opening remarks at a committee hearing titled “Death by a Thousand Regulations: The Biden Administration’s Campaign to Bury America in Red Tape.”In his opening statement, Chairman Comer emphasized that today’s oversight hearing will shine a light on President Biden’s regulatory blitz that began on his first day in office. Chairman Comer highlighted how sweeping executive orders and unchecked regulations issued by the Biden Administration have resulted in Americans paying higher prices, businesses struggling to make ends meet, and fewer economic opportunities in the marketplace. In addition, he noted that the Biden Administration targeted positive and necessary regulatory reforms implemented by the previous Administration. He stressed that this dramatic expansion of Executive Branch power has come at the expense of the American people. Chairman Comer concluded that Congress has a responsibility to address President Biden’s radical, costly, and burdensome agenda.

Below are Chairman Comer’s remarks as prepared for delivery.

Today’s hearing will shine a bright light on President Biden’s “whole-of-government” regulatory blitz that began on his first day in office.

From sweeping Executive Orders to massive, costly agency regulations, the Biden Administration has spared no expense when it comes to transforming America—much of which has been done without a clear delegation from Congress.

In just his first few days in office, President Biden issued far-reaching Executive Orders that radically altered how federal agencies approached climate issues.

The Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, and several other agencies launched a government-wide effort to push out regulations to fundamentally change American life. 

It is estimated that just three of the Biden Administration’s rules will cause $1.5 trillion to be spent over the next decade.

We know what that means for businesses and consumers: higher costs of doing business, higher prices, and fewer choices in the marketplace.

And we know that this overreach will only continue the expansion of Executive Branch power at the expense of the American people.

It didn’t have to be this way, and it wasn’t long ago that we were on the right track to limit federal regulatory excess that holds back economic prosperity.

The prior administration implemented substantial reforms to limit regulatory overreach, producing great economic success.

According to the 2020 Economic Report of the President, the Council of Economic Advisers estimated that regulatory reform was on track within 5 to 10 years to “raise[] real incomes by $3,100 per household per year by increasing choice, productivity, and competition.”

That’s over $3,000 more in the pocket of every household in America as a result of a smart approach to regulation.

Also according to that report, just twenty of the Trump Administration’s deregulatory actions were expected to save consumers and businesses about $220 billion per year after they went into full effect.

President Biden ran on being a “unifying” president, but instead he has used his platform to strip away those regulatory reforms we know were positively impacting the economy and replaced them with historic levels of new red tape.

The Biden Administration wasted no time eliminating deregulatory policies and instead cleared the way for President Biden’s radical, costly, and burdensome agenda.

The last thing any consumer or business wants to do is spend more time and more money on paperwork.  That’s something on which we can all agree.

With historically high inflation, most consumers and businesses simply don’t have extra cash laying around to pay someone to fill out reams more paperwork for them. 

Fortunately, Republicans in Congress know what a thoughtful, efficient, and results-driven regulatory system looks like, and that’s what I and my colleagues in this Republican majority are here to support.

This Committee and this House Majority will continue to hold the Biden Administration accountable for its extreme regulatory overreach and pursue legislative solutions to ensure commonsense regulatory reform.

When America isn’t tied down with red tape, or buried under heaps of federal paperwork, America’s small businesses, workers and communities are capable of soaring to new heights of prosperity.

And with more economic prosperity comes more economic opportunities.  And these opportunities will do more to help Americans create, innovate, and thrive then any regulation pushed through by unelected bureaucrats.

We saw this during the previous Administration and the results speak for themselves.

I thank the witnesses for being here today to testify. 

And with that, I yield to Ranking Member Raskin for his opening statement.

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