•HCON 125 RH 
(6) Since President Obama’s inauguration in 
2009, the administration has issued more than 
556,000 pages of regulations and accompanying doc-
umentation in the Federal Register, including 
81,910 pages in 2015. 
(7) Since 2009, the White House has imposed 
more than $728 billion in additional Federal regu-
latory costs, with over $100 billion in further costs 
proposed since the beginning of 2015. 
(8) The United States Code of Federal Regula-
tions now contains over 175,000 pages of regula-
tions in 235 volumes. 
(9) Notwithstanding the size and growth of 
Federal regulations, Congress lacks an effective 
mechanism to manage the level of new Federal regu-
latory costs imposed each year. Other nations, mean-
while, have successfully implemented the use of reg-
ulatory budgeting to control excess regulation and 
regulatory costs. 
(10) Federal regulatory agencies routinely fail 
to analyze both the costs and benefits of new regula-
tions. 
(11) While the Obama administration has rou-
tinely failed to analyze both the costs and benefits 
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•HCON 125 RH 
of its new regulations, the United States has experi-
enced zero real wage growth since 2007. 
(12) While the Obama administration has 
sharply increased Federal regulatory costs, it has 
produced the weakest recovery from economic reces-
sion since World War II. 
(13) If the Obama administration had produced 
even an average recovery, Americans would have six 
million more jobs. Instead, labor force participation 
is near historic lows and over 90 million Americans 
over the age of 16 are out of the workforce. 
(14) Dodd-Frank (Public Law 111–203) alone 
has resulted in more than $39.3 billion in regulatory 
compliance costs and has imposed as much as 76.6 
million hours of proposed and final regulatory com-
pliance paperwork on job creators. 
(15) Implementation of the Affordable Care Act 
has resulted in 177.9 million annual hours of regu-
latory compliance paperwork, $37.1 billion of regu-
latory compliance costs on the private sector, and 
$13 billion in regulatory compliance costs on the 
States. 
(16) Agencies impose costly regulations without 
relying on sound science through the use of judicial 
consent decrees and settlement agreements and the 
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abuse of interim compliance costs imposed on regu-
lated entities that bring legal challenges against 
newly promulgated regulations. 
(17) The highest regulatory costs come from 
rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA). Among major new and proposed EPA regu-
lations are those that would vastly expand EPA’s 
control of land use through Clean Water Act permit-
ting programs, commonly referred to as the Waters 
of the United States (WOTUS) rule; limit develop-
ment in counties in nearly every State under Clean 
Air Act ozone regulations; and impose a de-facto ban 
on new United States coal-fired power plants. 
(18) EPA’s power plant rules exemplify the im-
pact of excessive regulation. 
(19) In June 2014, the EPA proposed a rule to 
cut carbon pollution from the Nation’s power plants. 
The proposed standards are unachievable with cur-
rent commercially available technology, resulting in 
a de-facto ban on new coal-fired power plants. 
(20) Coal-fired power plants provide roughly 40 
percent of the United States electricity at a low cost. 
Unfairly targeting the coal industry with costly and 
unachievable regulations will increase energy prices, 
disproportionately disadvantaging energy-intensive 
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industries like manufacturing and construction. This 
will make life more difficult for millions of low-in-
come and middle class families already struggling to 
pay their bills. 
(21) Three hundred thirty coal units are pro-
posed for retirement or conversion as a result of 
EPA regulations. Combined with the defacto prohi-
bition on new plants, these retirements and conver-
sions may further increase the cost of electricity. 
(22) A recent study by Energy Ventures Anal-
ysis Inc., an energy market analysis group, estimates 
the average energy bill in West Virginia will rise 
$750 per household by 2020, due in part to EPA 
regulations. West Virginia receives 95 percent of its 
electricity from coal. 
(23) The Heritage Foundation found that a 
phase out of coal would cost 600,000 jobs by the end 
of 2023, resulting in an aggregate gross domestic 
product decrease of $2.23 trillion over the entire pe-
riod and reducing the income of a family of 4 by 
$1,200 per year. Of these jobs, 330,000 will come 
from the manufacturing sector, with California, 
Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New 
York, Indiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and 
Georgia seeing the highest job losses. 
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•HCON 125 RH 
(b) POLICY ON FEDERAL REGULATORY BUDGETING 
AND REFORM.—It is the policy of this concurrent resolu-
tion that the House should, in consultation with the pub-
lic, consider legislation that— 
(1) promotes— 
(A) economic growth, job creation, higher 
wages, and increased investment by eliminating 
unnecessary red tape and streamlining, simpli-
fying and lowering the costs of Federal regula-
tions; and 
(B) the adoption of least-cost regulatory 
alternatives to meet the objectives of Federal 
regulatory statutes; 
(2) protects— 
(A) the poor and lower-income households 
from the regressive effects of excessive regula-
tion; and 
(B) workers against the unnecessary elimi-
nation of jobs and loss or reduction of wages; 
(3) requires— 
(A) an annual, congressional regulatory 
budget that establishes annual costs of regula-
tions and allocates these costs amongst Federal 
regulatory agencies; 
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