Reinnovate the booming economy we had before covid19. He boomiy we had before covid19. To do so we put on this presentation to listen today from United States senators ted cruz and mike lee. Each one has ideas about Regulatory Reform that will kickstart our economy as well as keep it going strong on a longterm basis. I would now like to invite senator cruz and senator lee to join me. Before we start todays discussion, i want to get each senator the opportunity to offer some introductory remarks. Senator cruz, you are up at first. Well good morning. Its a pleasure to join you. Thank you for taking the time to participate. And paul, its good to see you. Mica, its good to see you and what a testament to the wonders of technology that were able to have an intimate conversation thousands of miles apart, and im pretty sure that through the electrons this qualifies as social distancing. You know, the fact that were able to do this so seamlessly, so effortlessly is really a testament to the opportunities that have been presented by this enormous crisis. As an issue when facing two simultaneous crises, a Public Health crisis, the coronavirus pandemic has killed over 300,000 people, and an economic crisis over 36 Million People have lost their jobs as the economy has ground to a halt, and unusually in terms of economic crises, this one is not the cause of some fundamental weakness in the economy or its not a recession that was driven by the misallocation of capital. Instead, the direct result of Government Policies that were put in place to fight the pandemic. And we are seeing now millions of americans out of work, over 20 of the American Workforce has lost their job in the last two months. That is unprecedented in our lifetimes. You have to go back to the Great Depression to find a comparable economic catastrophe that a struck the American Economy. Not only that but we have millions of Small Businesses that have either gone out of business or on the verge of bankruptcy. And so the crisis level is enormous. But that being said, that also means the task Going Forward is enormous. Mike and i all the members of the senate, we have worked together on four separate piece of legislation, all of which passed overwhelmingly with overwhelming bipartisan support. Those pieces of legislation, theyre often referred to as stimulus legislation but thats not, in fact, what i think they are. I dont call them stimulus and affect what i call that is relief legislation because they were designed to provide immediate relief, shortterm emergency bridge loans to individuals and families and Small Businesses to help them get through the immediate crises that were facing. The state we are at now, theres some of the democratic side of the aisle who want to continue shoveling money, and i will tell you the quantity of money that congress has been in the last two months in response to this crisis takes your breath away. For both mike and i we are at times literally unable to breathe given the quantity of debt that our nation is taken to try to get through this crisis. The next stage, however, when we are now i believe the next legislation should be recovery legislation it should be focused not on relief, not on spending more money and you shoveling money at the problem. We cant fix it that way. Instead the next stage should be focused on tax reform and Regulatory Reform. In other words, lesson the burden on Small Business and job graders. The only way out of this mess economically speaking us to get people back to work and that means we need to be working for policy that helps the Small Businesses that are just starting to open up their doors again that are just starting to see customers again, policies that help them survive and we hire their employees and hopefully grow and thrive. Weve got to unleash the engine, the American Free enterprise system. The only string long enough only thing strong enough. On the regulatory side come one good place to start is every regulation, federal regulation, stately galatian, local legislation in the last three months has been suspended because of the crisis to deal with the crisis. We should all start with the presumption that those regulations should stay suspended Going Forward. That it was being helpful for the migration to be suspended during the time of crisis, then it should still be helpful during recovery. I think thats what our focus needs to be, is how do we empower Small Businesses to drive Free Enterprise forward and turn our economy around and get people back to work. Senator lee, do you have any opening remarks . Indeed. Thanks so much. Its an honor and privilege to be with you and to be with my friend senator ted cruz. I agree with every word he just thought it including the words but, and and the. Usually when i hear a sentence like that but its great to be with ted. Look, one of the many things he said that is right and so for our time is a notion that were not going to fix our economy with more government spending. Were not going to fix our economy with more government programs. What we need is to get government out of the way so americans can start helping each other again. Thats why i cosponsored along with senator cruz a bill called the right to test act that this is legislation that would let states approve and distribute diagnostic tests when the state or the federal government has declared a Public Health emergency. Its also why i i cosponsored something called the prime act which will help farmers sell the livestock for higher prices and lower meat prices old way for consumers in Grocery Stores. Right now is a weird bottleneck at meatpacking plants, and what the prime act does is allow states to regulate slaughter facilities or meat sold within the same state. We have two members of the federal was never intended to be this allencompassing regulatory body that would regulate even purely local activities like labor, mining, manufacturing and agriculture. It wasnt meant to be the comprehensive exclusive regulator of things like meatpacking and yet it is the federal commandeering of the meatpacking licensing and regulatory business in this nation that has resulted in this bottleneck, the results for higher price for consumers and lower prices for those who actually produce meat. Thats a problem the prime act would help us deal with that. We also have to protect businesses from the problems that would otherwise arise from, predictive for businesses that want to reopen from trial lawyers. Were trying to make a quick buck. Who are trying to make a quick buck. Falafel what is called animal diversity to section. This would for more businesses to move to federal court where its often easier to defend against trivial lawsuits. The constitution itself in article iii section two sets out the format for that and it says when you got plaintiff for one state and defend us from another state, you ought to be able to have in litigation that would otherwise be pending before state court. Not to be able to access to federal courts because theres a bit more consistency between one federal court and another. I think were going to touch on this later but our environmental laws specifically the National Environmental policy act have been weaponized by radical fundamentalists. They been weaponized in order to raise the costs and cause significant delays to all federally funded Infrastructure Projects throughout the country. You want to know why it takes billions of additional dollars and many years longer to complete the same Infrastructure Projects are grandparents built . Sometimes in a very short timeframe, just a few decades ago, nepa is often part of the problem and im working on legislation that would set a shot block on planning in litigation to speed up the Environmental Review process while still protecting the environment. Those things are at odds with each other and when we look at many of our pure nations peer to nations that have aggressive nepa like laws, we stand out like a sore thumb as as a couny that doesnt put any time constraints on this process and get those countries, thinking of countries like canada, are not exactly environmental hellholes. User places the protect the environment and at the same time provide a reasonable set of expectations that consumers and businesses can look forward to in the economy. We ought to look at the rules and regulations that ted referred to that has been suspended during the crisis. Included within these are many of the occupational licensing regulations. We should ask ourselves why it is that his regulations were put in place in the first place if they are appropriate to be dropped during a real emergency. If we can see this crisis as an opportunity for systematic Regulatory Reform, then our economy cant and i believe will come back stronger than ever. I continually our best days as americans remain yet ahead of us. But in order to get we have to make the right choices. Thank you. Senator lee, thank you very much. Let me ask a a question and ths is a tossup to both of you. You both side and may 14 letter to the Senate Minority and majority leaders urging them to support statutory reforms to provide regulatory relief for businesses. In the letter you referred to quote paperwork reduction and removing outmoded compliance requirements. I i know you both mention severl different possibilities of reforms that we should make. Do you have any specific examples in mind . And woody be possible to have those included in legislation that we will see passed into law before the end of this year . Ill start with that if you would like. The most concrete example of an thinking of is my nepa reform legislation. This would do a number of things with the nepa process but the most important reform in it would be to limit the amount of time that can be taken up at each stage of Environmental Review, one of the National Environmental policy act. Because right now theres no limit to it, and so agencies, between a combination of agency action, court action and preparations for those separate venues, its not uncommon in this country to see a project, sometimes its a road or highway. Highway. Sometimes its an Energy Project or something much more pedestrian. But its not all that uncommon these days to see that taking more than a decade, and theres no reason for that. We dont end up with a clean and five as a result of it taking that long. The review process itself can make sure we dont wreak havoc on the environment might otherwise. Theres a reason why that should have to take a decade to discern your i put shot blocks in place and also put in some requirements that would allow the federal government to use corresponding state law document productions as a substitute for what the therapy would otherwise be provided. If a citizen something similar, the federal government ought to get a handle that. This would reduce the overall point of paperwork and it is something that could be put into a vase four leipsic passage, particularly if it ends up being an infrastructure component to that a phase four. Senator cruz, would you like to answer . So i emphatically agree with everything mike said and let me take several different pieces. Nepa reforms, spinning of Environmental Review, mike mentioned the process of building any project can be delayed years or even decades, and the way the system operates that its not designed to protect the environment. Instead what it is time to do is allow activist groups to lose litigation to shut down a a project him to shut and 11. It uses a tool simply to [inaudible] a little over a week ago i had a phone call with elon musk, the ceo and founder of tesla and spacex and elon is hardly a right wing conservative activist. But he is public expressed his displeasure with the headquarters of tesla in california and they shut down their factory there, and hes expressed his displeasure with wanting to open up his factory and he publicly expressed his interest in it california keeps doing this, we may decide to move our tesla headquarters out of california and maybe to texas. I called elon and said, hey, if you want to come to texas, we would love to have you. Texas is real simple. We love jobs. Anyone whos coming and creating jobs, we would love to have you. In addition to tesla, and i think this is a very real possibility, i am hopeful well see tesla come to texas but in addition to tesla, spacex has very substantial operation already in texas. This week today weve got spacex launch, the first launch of u. S. Astronauts on u. S. Soil on a u. S. Rocket in over a decade. Spacex will be launching from cape canaveral, but they also have a launch facility in south texas. The lot and i talked about the desire to substantially expand the launch facility in south texas to create even more jobs in south texas but he said the biggest problem is the Environmental Review, we can expand the operation into a get through the enormous red tape and bureaucracy. So i think speeding that up is incredibly important. To give you a sense of scope, i actually pulled some numbers. So between the year 20002016, the epa issued a total of 22 rules, estimated by omb to cost 1 billion or more. That was a total of 104. 4 billion. Every other federal agency combined issued only 19 of those rules that cost an estimated 34. 4 billion. So to put it in perspective, epa alone issued more of those rules and every other agency and more than three times as costly to the economy. So i think speeding at that review, and i think the administration has made positive steps in that regard, and was interesting, mike and i both serve on the commerce committee, Judiciary Committee together your when you bring in local mayors, when you bring in local elected officeholders, elected democrats, inevitably the express frustration with their want to build public come to want to build a bridge and they say its a most impossible to do the review. It goes on and on and on, and i know mike and i both have those conversations with elected democrats will be similar, its your party thats putting all of those roadblocks in the way. And if you think this is an opportunity to speed that up and is an opportunity we should take advantage of. Senators, it seems possible one of the reasons Environment Impact statements that get written resemble war and peace in terms of the magnitude and the amount of time it takes to write them is that agencies might be afraid that unless they do work of that length, the courts will strike it down. That brings up some general Regulatory Reform questions. There have been a variety of largescale proposals, such as a requirement that congress adopt any rule that has more than a 100 billion impact on the economy. Could you each address what you think the best way of trying to deal with these broader, general regulatory issues are so that as businesses can start hiring people again . Whether by limiting environmental or others. Senator cruz, story, thats fine. I thought i would let senator cruz gophers this time. Mike, go ahead. If i had, given the power to pass any single piece of legislation now pending, over the wave a magic wand, and it would be the reins act, and i can stands for regulations in need of scrutiny. Does what you just described, which is anytime a federal regulation deemed economically significant costing over 100 million to comply with were put in place they could not be selfexecuting. Wouldnt take effect as long until such time as both houses of congress had affirmatively passed it and submit it to the present for signature or veto. If we were to pass Something Like that it would do a couple of important things. Number one it would restore the letter and spirit of article one, section one clause one, the very first clause says all legislative power granted shall be vested in congress in the United States which shall consist of a senate and a house of representatives. Article one section seven goes on to explain the legislative formula for enacting federal law. You cannot do it without something passing the house and the senate and being submitted to the president for signature or veto and, of course, give it a seat if they can only if twothirds of both houses decide to overturn it. My point is this. Over the last few Decades Congress has become increasingly reliant on the passing actual laws of passing platitudes, and passing laws that say things like we shall have good laws in very expertly delicate to commission or agency or department. The task of writing and interpreting and enforcing. The problem with these laws is not only are they put in place through a constitutionally suspect mechanism but theyre to suspect as a matter of policy and public acceptability for the same reasons that they violate the letter and spirit of the constitution. Meaning these many women who inhabit our federal agencies can our federal departments, the federal bureaucrats to write these laws are well educated, well intentioned, hardworking and highly specialized, but they dont work for you. You can fire your congressman every two years. You can file your senators every six years. You cannot fire a bureaucrat. They dont stand for election. They are not accountable to anyone who does intern stand for election. This is really something that we need to do. It, neither republican or democrat. This is a constant semantic we we are to be fulfilling. And it also has the added benefit because of the fact it would bring elected officials back into the accountability chain of lawmaking. Of making sure we do something, put something in place in federal law, its going to be really expensive, that somebody who stand is on the ballot is going to be on the line for putting that there.