Victory! NC Legislature Overrides Veto to Enact REINS Act

In a major win for separation of powers and limited government, the North Carolina legislature overrode Governor Josh Stein’s veto of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, otherwise known as the REINS Act. Under HB 402, any rule or regulation with a price tag of at least $20 million over a five-year period now requires approval from the state’s legislature.

Prior to HB 402, administrative agencies were free to impose costly rules on businesses under the guise of broad statutory mandates. Now, the legislature will have a meaningful check on runaway rulemaking, and all rules with a substantial economic impact will first have to receive legislative approval before going into effect, restoring accountability and transparency to the rulemaking process.

North Carolina joins seven other states that host REINS style provisions, with the most recent being Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Utah earlier this year. While the bill is modeled after proposed federal legislation, the requirements found in HB 402 have been active in similar state laws since 2010.

House sponsor Rep. David Chesser said that the bill “has been about giving the people of North Carolina a stronger voice in the rules that impact their lives. The current process is simply not transparent; we owe it to the people we serve to do better.”

Under the constitutional principles of democratic accountability and separation of powers, the power to make laws belongs to the People and their elected representatives in the legislature. Yet, state agencies routinely usurp the legislative function by effectively legislating through regulation. Unfortunately, this overreach comes at a steep cost.

New regulatory mandates result in compliance costs and economic impacts that are overlooked or ignored by bureaucrats. Entrepreneurs, employees, consumers and businesses all bear these increased costs of complying with red tape and restrictions imposed by regulators without any true democratic accountability. Thankfully, the legislature now has a new tool in HB 402 to help put a stop to agency overreach.

The Goldwater Institute applauds the tireless work of the North Carolina legislature to turn this great piece of legislation into law, especially its sponsors. We also thank our allies at the John Locke Institute, Americans for Prosperity and the Pacific Legal Foundation for their unwavering partnership in achieving this victory.

Taylor Walker is the State Affairs Associate at the Goldwater Institute.