Congress also needs to stop granting blank checks to agencies to implement legislation. But we have less and less control over our lives because we have no control over the people who make the rules by which we live-about how we make and sell our products, which groups get what preferences, how we can use our land. Legislators need to stop delegating their lawmaking powers to unelected bureaucrats. Congress should allow the relevant agency to draft only a proposed, not a final, rule. Then Congress should have to vote on the measure before it becomes law.
Responsibility is the key to such reform.
While Howard may be a bit too optimistic, he is right about holding lawmakers accountable for their decisions. Today legislators can hide behind faceless bureaucrats. Were the former forced to pass judgment on the latter's work, this political free lunch would disappear. Any remaining rules should be flexible and rely on market forces. Government should be made to pay when it imposes unnecessary costs on innocent people-by effectively taking their property through regulation, for instance.