The House Passes RSC Chairman Walker's GOOD Act to Help Employers and Force Federal Agencies to Make Regulatory Guidance Transparent

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mark Walker (R-N.C.) today released the following statement after the House passed his legislation, H.R. 4809, the Guidance Out Of Darkness (GOOD) Act,with unanimous bipartisan support:

"I am proud to lead this successful effort to boost accountability and transparency in government, helping our families and small businesses succeed. Federal agencies are using veiled actions to circumvent the normal rule-making process, greatly costing North Carolina families and employers with compliance burdens and wasted time navigating a bureaucratic nightmare. Every dollar and hour blown managing this is an opportunity lost, a job not created, and investment not going into our community."

This legislation would increase government accountability and transparency, while lessening the burden on small businesses by requiring federal agencies to post regulatory guidance documents online in an easy to find location. The bill is a House companion to S.2296, introduced by U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.).

Walker released the following video upon passage, explaining the impact of the GOOD Act:

To circumvent responsibility and the legal rule-making process, the previous Administration had federal agencies issue "guidance" to serve as de facto regulations.

"The Obama Administration made an art of evading public scrutiny by replacing formal rule-making with a stream of 'guidance,' 'bulletins' and 'statements of policy,'" The Wall Street Journal wrote.

While the regulations themselves were often erroneous and harmful to businesses, they also created undue burden in compliance as the guidance took on many different forms – blog posts, memos, letters, and news releases.

The GOOD Act would bring clarity to the process by forcing all federal agencies to publish guidance documents on their website.

The GOOD Act has received praise from Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). "Requiring vastly more disclosure, ensuring that federal agencies post all guidance documents online is a sensible and essential step to beginning to hold federal agencies accountable for their actions," Clyde Wane Crews, vice president for policy at CEI said.