Collins Introduces Sunshine Legislation

9th District U.S. Representative Doug Collins introduces a bill in the House he said is designed to curb back-door rulemaking.

Recently, Collins introduced House Resolution 469, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act, while Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa introduced a companion bill in the Senate.

According to Collins’ office, the Sunshine Act would inhibit the ability of federal agencies to participate in back-door, sue-and-settle arrangements with special interest groups that Collins says circumvent established regulatory processes.

Collins said that federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency have increasingly turned to consent decrees as a means of realigning regulatory priorities and establishing new rules that affect American workers and families.

He said agencies can carry out sue-and-settle litigation without public notice or comment, and over 100 such regulations have been handed down during the current administration, at an estimated annual cost of more than $100 billion.

Specifically, the Sunshine Act checks federal runs around the regulatory process by, among other things, requiring agencies to publicly post and report to Congress information on sue-and-settle complaints, consent decrees and settlement agreements; prohibiting the same-day filing of complaints and pre-negotiated consent decrees and settlement agreements in cases seeking to compel agency action; requiring that consent decrees and settlement agreements be filed only after interested parties have had the opportunity to intervene in the litigation and join settlement negotiations, and only after any proposed consent decree or settlement has been published for at least 60 days to provide for notice and comment; and requiring courts considering approval of consent decrees and settlement agreements to account for public comments and compliance with regulatory process statutes and executive orders.