Regulation Freedom Amendment Passes House!
We wrote earlier this month about the legislators who failed to release state Rep. Grant Hodges’ HR 1031, a resolution that would have urged Congress to pass a Regulation Freedom Amendment, from the House State Agencies Committee.
Thankfully, legislators seem to have come to their senses; the bill passed out of the House almost unanimously earlier today.
The bill says:
WHEREAS, people throughout the country are concerned by the expansion of federal regulation which can endanger economic growth and the creation of jobs; and WHEREAS, polling shows that almost two-thirds (2/3) of American voters agree that federal regulators should be more accountable to elected officials; and WHEREAS, under Article V of the Constitution of the United States, amendments to the federal Constitution may be proposed by the United States Congress whenever two-thirds (2/3) of both houses deem it necessary, or upon the application of the legislatures of two-thirds (2/3) of the several states the United States Congress shall call a convention for the purpose of proposing amendments; and WHEREAS, the House of Representatives, along with legislators in multiple states, urge the United States Congress to propose the Regulation Freedom Amendment in order to stop an increasingly abusive federal regulatory regime of bureaucrats in Washington that prevent the economic growth of our country… WHEREAS, the text of the Regulation Freedom Amendment reads, “Whenever one quarter of the Members of the U.S. House or the U.S. Senate transmit to the President their written declaration of opposition to a proposed federal regulation, it shall require a majority vote of the House and Senate to adopt that regulation.”, NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETIETH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS: THAT the House of Representatives urges the United States Congress to propose the Regulation Freedom Amendment.
The bill now needs to make it through the Senate before the end of the legislative session.
Many legislators ran on rolling back government regulations for average Arkansans; this bill is one way to do just that.
For more information on the Regulation Freedom Amendment, visit the American Opportunity Project.
In other good news at the Capitol today, the Senate passed Rep. Richard Womack’s HB 1669. The House has already passed a slightly different version of this bill, which helps ensure citizens’ right to record public events. It will now head back to the House for a vote on the amended version.
The bill states:
A public officer or employee shall not: Prohibit a person from using a recording device carried on or near the person in a place that is open to and accessible to the general public or any private property where the person is lawfully present… The bill also bars unnecessary seizures of devices and deletions of electronic data.
The session appears to be ending next week, but we’ll be watching all of the remaining (good and bad) bills to keep you updated.
