View PDF VersionThe Honorable Ron Johnson
United States Senate
328 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Mark Walker
United States House of Representatives
1305 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Senator Johnson and Representative Walker,
On behalf of National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and our members across the country, I am pleased to offer our endorsement of your legislation, the “Guidance Out Of Darkness Act” (S. 2296 in the Senate and H.R. 4809 in the House of Representatives). This well-thought out and commonsense legislation will increase the transparency of federal regulations for the public.
Excessive regulations cost the economy over $2 trillion, making it difficult for businesses to expand and succeed. As it stands, federal agencies are not obligated to post their guidance documents online, which only adds to the bureaucratic complexity businesses face with monitoring and complying with federal rules. Ensuring final regulations are easily accessible is fundamental to an agency’s effectiveness and critical for the public’s ability to hold the agency accountable.
This legislation shines light on rules that are stuck in the shadows of the bureaucracy by requiring agencies to post their regulatory guidance documents in a central location on their website. Ensuring agencies report their guidance documents online is a reasonable solution to hold the bureaucracy responsible.
NTU strongly supports increasing transparency and oversight of the regulatory system. I am pleased to endorse your sensible legislation and hope your colleagues will sign on as cosponsors.
Sincerely,
Thomas Aiello
Policy and Government Affairs Associate