“The American Farm Bureau Federation strongly supports the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2015,” said Bob Stallman, President of the American Farm Bureau Federation. “We applaud the leadership of Reps. Robert Goodlatte and Collin Peterson in reintroducing this measure, which has traditionally received bipartisan support, and we will work actively for swift approval by Congress.” Stallman added, in a statement released on Wednesday, “The Regulatory Accountability Act takes an important step towards updating and reinvigorating the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). That law is now nearly seven decades old and must be amended to ensure that the public and the regulated community, in particular, are afforded a transparent, fair and open regulatory process. This legislation would require agencies to be more open and transparent on data justifying a rule. The most costly rules would be subject to on-the-record hearings. Agencies would be required to consider such rules’ impact on jobs and the economy. Moreover, agencies’ ability to use guidance and interim final rules would be constrained.”
AFBF said Goodlatte-Peterson updates to the APA will give all stakeholders a greater voice in a process that is too often one-sided and unfair, “Everything from the environment to trade, product safety and health, the fertility of farmland, even the security of our retirements, suffer when rule makers fail to take into account the harm they may cause.”
“We need something better than attack, counterattack, and litigation,” said Stallman. “We strongly urge all members of Congress to support this bill.”