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•HCON 27 RH 
(1) For decades, the Nation’s commitment to 
the discovery, development, and delivery of new 
treatments and cures has made the United States 
the biomedical innovation capital of the world, bring-
ing life-saving drugs and devices to patients and well 
over a million high-paying jobs to local communities. 
(2) Thanks to the visionary and determined 
leadership of innovators throughout America, includ-
ing industry, academic medical centers, and the Na-
tional Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States 
has led the way in early discovery. The United 
States leadership role is being threatened, however, 
as other countries contribute more to basic research 
from both public and private sources. 
(3) The Organisation for Economic Develop-
ment and Cooperation predicts that China, for ex-
ample, will outspend the United States in total re-
search and development by the end of the decade. 
(4) Federal policies should foster innovation in 
health care, not stifle it. America should maintain 
its world leadership in medical science by encour-
aging competitive forces to work through the mar-
ketplace in delivering cures and therapies to pa-
tients. 
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•HCON 27 RH 
(5) Too often the bureaucracy and red-tape in 
Washington hold back medical innovation and pre-
vent new lifesaving treatments from reaching pa-
tients. This resolution recognizes the valuable role of 
the NIH and the indispensable contributions to med-
ical research coming from outside Washington. 
(6) America is the greatest, most innovative 
Nation on Earth. Her people are innovators, entre-
preneurs, visionaries, and relentless builders of the 
future. Americans were responsible for the first tele-
phone, the first airplane, the first computer, for put-
ting the first man on the moon, for creating the first 
vaccine for polio and for legions of other scientific 
and medical breakthroughs that have improved and 
prolonged human health and life for countless people 
in America and around the world. 
(b) POLICY ON MEDICAL INNOVATION.— 
(1) It is the policy of this resolution to support 
the important work of medical innovators through-
out the country, including private-sector innovators, 
medical centers and the National Institutes of 
Health. 
(2) At the same time, the budget calls for con-
tinued strong funding for the agencies that engage 
in valuable research and development, while also 
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•HCON 27 RH 
urging Washington to get out of the way of re-
searchers, discoverers and innovators all over the 
country. 
SEC. 810. POLICY STATEMENT ON FEDERAL REGULATORY 
REFORM. 
(a) FINDINGS.— The House finds the following: 
(1) Excessive regulation at the Federal level 
has hurt job creation and dampened the economy, 
slowing the Nation’s recovery from the economic re-
cession. 
(2) Since President Obama’s inauguration in 
2009, the administration has issued more than 
468,500 pages of regulations in the Federal Register 
including 70,066 pages in 2014. 
(3) The National Association of Manufacturers 
estimates the total cost of regulations is as high as 
$2.03 trillion per year. Since 2009, the White House 
has generated more than $494 billion in regulatory 
activity, with an additional $87.6 billion in regu-
latory costs currently pending. 
(4) The Dodd-Frank financial services legisla-
tion (Public Law 111–203) has resulted in more 
than $32 billion in compliance costs and saddled job 
creators with more than 63 million hours of compli-
ance paperwork. 
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•HCON 27 RH 
(5) Implementation of the Affordable Care Act 
to date has added 132.9 million annual hours of 
compliance paperwork, imposing $24.3 billion of 
compliance costs on the private sector and an $8 bil-
lion cost burden on the States. 
(6) The highest regulatory costs come from 
rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA); these regulations are primarily targeted at 
the coal industry. In June 2014, the EPA proposed 
a rule to cut carbon pollution from the Nation’s 
power 
plants. 
The 
proposed 
standards 
are 
unachievable with current commercially available 
technology, resulting in a de-facto ban on new coal- 
fired power plants. 
(7) 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 
industries like manufacturing and construction, and 
will make life more difficult for millions of low-in-
come and middle class families already struggling to 
pay their bills. 
(8) Three hundred and thirty coal units are 
being retired or converted as a result of EPA regula-
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•HCON 27 RH 
tions. Combined with the de-facto prohibition on new 
plants, these retirements and conversions may fur-
ther increase the cost of electricity. 
(9) A recent study by the energy market anal-
ysis group Energy Ventures Analysis Inc. 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. 
(10) 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 four 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. 
(b) POLICY ON FEDERAL REGULATORY REFORM.— 
It is the policy of this resolution that Congress should, 
in consultation with the public burdened by excessive regu-
lation, enact legislation that— 
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•HCON 27 RH 
(1) promotes economic growth and job creation 
by eliminating unnecessary red tape and stream-
lining and simplifying Federal regulations; 
(2) requires the implementation of a regulatory 
budget to be allocated amongst Government agen-
cies, which would require congressional approval and 
limit the maximum costs of regulations in a given 
year; 
(3) requires congressional approval of all new 
major regulations (those with an impact of $100 
million or more) before enactment as opposed to cur-
rent law in which Congress must expressly dis-
approve of regulation to prevent it from becoming 
law, which would keep Congress engaged as to pend-
ing regulatory policy and prevent costly and unsound 
policies from being implemented and becoming effec-
tive; 
(4) requires a three year retrospective cost-ben-
efit analysis of all new major regulations, to ensure 
that regulations operate as intended; 
(5) reinforces the requirement of regulatory im-
pact analysis for regulations proposed by executive 
branch agencies but also expands the requirement to 
independent agencies so that by law they consider 
the costs and benefits of proposed regulations rather 
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•HCON 27 RH 
than merely being encouraged to do so as is current 
practice; and 
(6) requires a formal rulemaking process for all 
major regulations, which would increase trans-
parency over the process and allow interested parties 
to communicate their views on proposed legislation 
to agency officials. 
SEC. 811. POLICY STATEMENT ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND 
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY. 
(a) FINDINGS ON HIGHER EDUCATION.—The House 
finds the following: 
(1) A well-educated workforce is critical to eco-
nomic, job, and wage growth. 
(2) Roughly 20 million students are enrolled in 
American colleges and universities. 
(3) Over the past decade, tuition and fees have 
been growing at an unsustainable rate. Between the 
2004-2005 Academic Year and the 2014-2015 Aca-
demic Year— 
(A) published tuition and fees at public 4- 
year colleges and universities increased at an 
average rate of 3.5 percent per year above the 
rate of inflation; 
(B) published tuition and fees at public 
two-year colleges and universities increased at 
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•HCON 27 RH 
an average rate of 2.5 percent per year above 
the rate of inflation; and 
(C) published tuition and fees at private 
nonprofit 4-year colleges and universities in-
creased at an average rate of 2.2 percent per 
year above the rate of inflation. 
(4) Federal financial aid for higher education 
has also seen a dramatic increase. The portion of the 
Federal student aid portfolio composed of Direct 
Loans, Federal Family Education Loans, and Per-
kins Loans with outstanding balances grew by 119 
percent between fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 
2014. 
(5) This spending has failed to make college 
more affordable. 
(6) In his 2012 State of the Union Address, 
President Obama noted: ‘‘We can’t just keep sub-
sidizing skyrocketing tuition; we’ll run out of 
money’’. 
(7) American students are chasing ever-increas-
ing tuition with ever-increasing debt. According to 
the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, student 
debt now stands at nearly $1.2 trillion. This makes 
student loans the second largest balance of consumer 
debt, after mortgage debt. 
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•HCON 27 RH 
(8) Students are carrying large debt loads and 
too many fail to complete college or end up default-
ing on these loans due to their debt burden and a 
weak economy and job market. 
(9) Based on estimates from the Congressional 
Budget Office, the Pell Grant Program will face a 
fiscal shortfall beginning in fiscal year 2017 and 
continuing in each subsequent year in the current 
budget window. 
(10) Failing to address these problems will 
jeopardize access and affordability to higher edu-
cation for America’s young people. 
(b) POLICY
ON
HIGHER
EDUCATION
AFFORD-
ABILITY.—It is the policy of this resolution to address the 
root drivers of tuition inflation, by— 
(1) targeting Federal financial aid to those 
most in need; 
(2) streamlining programs that provide aid to 
make them more effective; 
(3) maintaining the maximum Pell grant award 
level at $5,775 in each year of the budget window; 
and 
(4) removing regulatory barriers in higher edu-
cation that act to restrict flexibility and innovative 
teaching, particularly as it relates to non-traditional 
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•HCON 27 RH 
models such as online coursework and competency- 
based learning. 
(c) FINDINGS ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.—The 
House finds the following: 
(1) 8.7 million Americans are currently unem-
ployed. 
(2) Despite billions of dollars in spending, those 
looking for work are stymied by a broken workforce 
development system that fails to connect workers 
with assistance and employers with trained per-
sonnel. 
(3) The House Education and Workforce Com-
mittee successfully consolidated 15 job training pro-
grams in the recently enacted Workforce Innovation 
and Opportunity Act. 
(d) POLICY ON WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT.—It is 
the policy of this resolution to address the failings in the 
current workforce development system, by— 
(1) further streamlining and consolidating Fed-
eral job training programs; and 
(2) empowering states with the flexibility to tai-
lor funding and programs to the specific needs of 
their workforce, including the development of career 
scholarships. 
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