This is why we can't have nice things
by digby
Two words: perfidious Democrats:
Republicans in Congress aim to revamp an anti-regulatory law from the Newt Gingrich era in an effort to paralyze new financial, environmental and labor rules with a never-ending string of court challenges.
Next week, the House will consider a bill to amend the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995, which then-Speaker Gingrich (R-Ga.) shepherded through Congress. The 20-year-old law imposed a host of cost-benefit standards on federal regulators, including a requirement that they consider the costs that new rules might impose on state and local governments. But in order to garner Democratic votes and protect against a presidential veto, Gingrich made a significant concession: The regulators' calculations could not be challenged in court.
That would change under a new bill from Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), which would open up every aspect of these complex analyses to judicial review -- leading to an inevitable barrage of lawsuits from those affected by the pending rules.
The proposed Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act is part of a multifront attack on the federal regulatory state by Republican lawmakers, and Democrats have overwhelmingly opposed the measures in the House. But Sanchez signed her name to the current bill, and some Senate Democrats are working with Republicans on parts of the plan.
This is a purely political power play --- Republicans using whatever levers they have at their disposal to thwart the Democrats from achieving their goals. There is no particular policy goal it's all process. If the shoe were on the other foot the the Republicans would never find any of their own to sign on to it. Democrats signing on to stuff like this is the very definition of useful idiocy.
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