WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) today announced the formation of the bipartisan Senate Regulations Caucus to address regulatory reform at the federal level. With many legislative efforts currently underway to address over-regulation, the goal of the Senate Regulations Caucus is to unify and lead these efforts to advance meaningful regulatory reform in Congress.

“With thousands of new regulations taking effect every year, it’s far past time that Congress got a better handle on the regulatory system that impedes American businesses and hampers vital growth and innovation,” Senator King said. “The Senate Regulations Caucus can lead that effort and spearhead an overhaul of ineffective, duplicative, or outdated regulations so that businesses in Maine and across the country can do what they do best – create jobs and grow the economy.”

From introducing large-scale reform legislation to tackling smaller, poorly-tailored regulations head-on, improving the regulatory process to cultivate an environment for economic growth is one of Senator King’s top priorities – particularly as the U.S. issues nearly 3,000 new regulations every year but has limited capacity or processes to review the effectiveness of regulations already in place.

To address that very issue, Senator King, along with Senator Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), has introduced the Regulatory Improvement Act, bipartisan legislation that would create a Regulatory Improvement Commission to review outdated regulations with the goal of modifying, consolidating, or repealing regulations in order to reduce compliance costs, encourage growth and innovation, and improve competitiveness. Senator King has also introduced the PROTECT Act as well as the Federal Permitting Improvement Act, both of which seek to streamline an onerous regulatory scheme to protect innovation and create jobs.

###