Rounds Delivers Opening Statement at EPW Subcommittee Hearing

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight, today delivered the opening statement at his hearing entitled, “Oversight of EPA Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Governments.” This hearing is a continuation of the subcommittee’s oversight on various aspects of the EPA’s rulemaking process.

Throughout this Congress the subcommittee has held multiple hearings on EPA’s regulatory process, some of which examined the economic analysis EPA relies on when promulgating their regulations, the science behind these regulations, and most recently, in April this subcommittee held a hearing on EPA consideration for small businesses in the rulemaking process.

Rounds’ opening statement, as prepared for delivery:

The Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight is meeting today to conduct a hearing on “Oversight of EPA Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Governments.”

Today we will examine EPA’s compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and the impact of unfunded mandates imposed by the EPA on state, local and tribal governments.  I am pleased our witnesses include state, local and tribal representatives with extensive experience in balancing the demands required of states, localities and tribes in complying with EPA regulations while managing limited resources and budgets. 

The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, or UMRA, was enacted in 1995 and sought to avoid imposing unfunded federal mandates on state, local and tribal governments and to make certain federal agencies took costs into account when imposing new regulations. 

When a federal agency seeks to impose regulations on a state, local or tribal government that will result in $100 million dollars or more a year in expenditures, UMRA requires federal agencies to evaluate a reasonable number of regulatory alternatives and choose the most cost-effective alternative that will meet the regulatory goals of the agency without imposing unreasonable compliance costs on smaller governments.

However, EPA’s overly burdensome and aggressive regulatory agenda has resulted in billions of dollars in regulatory costs on state, local and tribal governments, and often leads to citizens footing the bill.

Under the current Administration, the regulatory burden imposed by the EPA on the American people has steadily increased.  According to the American Action Forum, from 2009 to 2016, the EPA has finalized 163 overall regulations at a regulatory cost of $312.2 billion dollars.

The number of unfunded mandates being imposed by the EPA has also increased. From 2005 to 2008, EPA finalized seven regulations that triggered UMRA.  However, from 2009 to 2014, the EPA issued 19 rules that contained unfunded mandates – a total of more than 3 annually. 

Further, in the just the past two years the EPA has moved forward with finalizing multiple regulations that will impose unprecedented costs on state, local and tribal governments. 

Despite the administration’s insistence that most of these rules are not unfunded mandates, in reality, rules such as the Waters of the U.S. rule, Ozone NAAQS rule, and the Clean Power Plan will undeniably result in hundreds of millions of dollars of compliance costs imposed on small governments faced with limited resources. 

For these rules, state, local and tribal governments were not properly consulted throughout the rulemaking process, as required by UMRA. The EPA finalized these regulations without considering the impact these regulations will have, and the EPA did not consider alternatives that would be more cost-effective and easier to comply with before imposing these large, one-size-fits-all regulations that will have little environmental benefit.

As a result, states, local and tribal governments will be forced to use limited resources to comply with burdensome federal regulations when they could be put to better use providing basic services and benefits to their citizens. Further, some small governments have no other choice but to raise taxes on American families in an attempt to manage the cost of complying with these federal regulations.

UMRA was created to make certain federal agencies took the time to consider how federal regulations would impact those required to comply with them.  Unfortunately, the EPA has issued regulations in a way counter to the core intent of UMRA and continues to impose burdensome, costly regulations without undertaking the proper consultation process or analyzing more cost-effective alternatives. 

Federal agencies cannot continue to impose billions of dollars in regulatory costs on state, local and tribal governments.  We must recognize the unique characteristics of these governments that are tasked with managing multiple federal, state and local responsibilities with limited resources while also trying to provide for American families. State, local and tribal governments should be equal partners with the EPA in the regulatory process rather than victims of an adversarial regulatory process. 

I’d like to thank our witnesses for being with us here today and I look forward to hearing your testimony.

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