Last week, JLF’s Jon Sanders spoke on a panel at the Platte Institute’s 2019 Legislative Summit. The Platte Institute is a state-based think tank located in Nebraska, and this year Jon spoke on the panel “Reining in Red Tape.” Sanders was joined on the panel by Nebraska state Sen. John Lowe, Lucas Vebber from the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, and James Broughel from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
The panel discussed a Nebraska REINS Act. REINS is an acronym for Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny. Sanders published a research report for the Platte Institute earlier this year on a potential REINS Act. In his report, Sanders defines the function of REINS:
Under REINS, economic cost estimates must be prepared for proposed rules. Each regulation would receive economic analysis to quantify the dollar amount of economic costs it is expected to have on the state’s economy. If that cost estimate exceeds a certain threshold amount set by the Legislature in the REINS text, the rule would be considered a major regulation. For example, in the Florida law, the threshold is an adverse impact or direct or indirect increase of regulatory costs on small business by $200,000 in a year (i.e., $1 million in five years).
You can read his full report here. Watch his interview with the Platte Institute’s Adam Weinberg here.