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This week, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider H.R. 5485, the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, introduced by Congressman Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.). This legislation allocates 2017 federal funding for numerous agencies including the Treasury Department, the IRS, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FCC.

One amendment (#86), introduced by Congressman Richard Hudson (R-NC) blocks all regulations from being proposed or finalized for the remainder of the Obama administration. ATR supports this important amendment and urges all Members of Congress to vote yes in order to stop Obama’s executive overreach.  

Over the past seven and a half years, the Obama administration has pushed numerous, unnecessary and damaging regulations that have cost billions of dollars. In the first half of this year alone, the administration has pushed regulations totaling more than $85 billion. With the Obama presidency coming to a close, unelected bureaucrats are pushing last minute regulations with reckless abandon.

One example of last minute regulations are the Treasury department’s Section 385 “Debt-Equity” regulations that grant the government power over a business’s internal transactions. This regulation was proposed with little input from experts and is on track to be finalized even as businesses do not understand all the ways it may affect them.

Both Democrats and Republicans have raised concerns with the broad scope of this regulation, specifically that it will have a chilling effect on investment, will create unneeded business uncertainty and complexity, and increase the frequency of inversions over the long-term.

However, this regulation is just one of many that the administration has pushed. Stopping Obama’s last minute regulatory flurry should be a priority for lawmakers, and Rep. Hudson’s amendment does exactly that. ATR urges full support for this important, conservative amendment.