House Science, Space, and Technology Chairman Lamar Smith today joined fellow members of the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Task Force in releasing its mission statement:
Mission: Make it easier to invest, produce and build in America with a modern and transparent regulatory system that relieves the burden on small businesses and other job creators and encourages financial independence, while balancing environmental stewardship, public safety, and consumer interests.
Principles:
1. Ensure federal regulations are a last resort and minimally intrusive.
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Except where federal regulations are necessary, only used for matters that are not best addressed by state and local governments or by non-regulatory approaches.
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Achieve statutory objectives without picking winners and losers and constraining compliance options.
Energy and Environment
2. Fully consider the many benefits of increased domestic energy production in regulations.
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Environmental considerations that prevent new energy production and energy infrastructure projects should be fairly balanced against the many direct and indirect benefits of such projects, including benefits for individuals, families, small businesses and energy security.
Energy and mineral production on public lands should be competitive with energy and mineral production on state and private lands.
3. Efforts to reduce, control, and remediate pollution should achieve real environmental benefits and be compatible with job creation and economic growth.
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Public health and welfare benefits of regulations should be balanced against the public health and welfare costs, including the impact of lost jobs or higher energy bills on low-income families and the nation’s ability to compete.
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All evidence used by agencies in support of a regulation should be based upon sound science, transparent and open to third-party and public review.
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States and local communities know best how to protect the lands and waters where they live and work.
4. Incorporate the strongly positive trends in environmental quality and public health in recent decades into the regulatory decision-making process.
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Some regulatory programs have achieved their goals, and further rounds of regulation are no longer needed.