Regulation Rewind Update

At my mobile offices and meetings throughout the Third District, I have the opportunity to hear directly from Nebraskans about the regulatory burdens impacting their lives and livelihoods. To fight government overreach, I launched my Regulation Rewind initiative in 2014 and have continued these efforts this year. Recently, I have taken significant steps to fight the Environmental Protection Agency's Waters of the U.S. rule and power plant regulations, as well as red tape impacting access to quality rural health care, but I have also been working to address numerous other government-imposed burdens.

Many Nebraskans are concerned about the Obama administration's efforts to regulate and restrict their Second Amendment rights. In July, the Los Angeles Times reported the Obama administration planned to report all 4.2 million Social Security beneficiaries with representative payees to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Assigning a representative payee to manage one's finances does not mean a person is violent or dangerous, and it certainly should not be grounds to revoke constitutional rights. In response to this overreach, I joined my colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee in writing to Acting Social Security Administrator Commissioner Carolyn Colvin opposing this move.

Second Amendment restrictions also impact our men and women in uniform. The terror attack on military recruiting stations in Tennessee again brought to light a serious problem – current Department of Defense regulations prohibit service members from carrying personal firearms in military installations.

Following the Tennessee shootings, I joined more than 60 colleagues in writing to Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter asking him to lift this restriction on service members' Second Amendment rights, a change which could save lives in the future. In response to this letter, the Pentagon is now considering proposals to allow specified service members to carry firearms on-base.

Dietary regulations have become another area of serious concern. Earlier this year, the federal Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) released recommendations to reduce meat consumption based on unscientific environmental factors, not nutrition. To combat this lack of focus on sound science, I sent a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack opposing the panel's use of non-nutritional factors in its recommendations.

Additionally, in their draft 2015 guidelines, DGAC mistakenly categorized enriched grains with refined grains, calling for limiting consumption of both. According to the Centers for Disease Control, consuming 400 micrograms of folic acid before and during early pregnancy reduces the risk of potentially deadly neural tube defects. Enriched grains can also provide valuable nutrients such as B-vitamins and iron. I joined with 59 colleagues writing to DGAC asking them to correct their error. Final DGAC recommendations are pending and will be released in the fall.

In Nebraska, landowners in the Northport Irrigation District have been restricted by a Bureau of Reclamation contract signed more than 60 years ago which requires burdensome reporting requirements and acreage limitations. To ease their regulatory burden, I reintroduced legislation in this Congress to allow these landowners to repay their loans individually, which would provide relief to landowners and generate otherwise uncollected revenue for the federal government. This legislation passed the House in June, and the U.S. Senate also held a hearing on the issue in June.

With your help, I will continue fighting back against an overreaching and overgrown federal government. Please visit my website at https://AdrianSmith.house.gov/RegulationRewind to learn more about my Regulation Rewind initiative and to send me new ideas for ways we can work together to reduce regulatory barriers for Nebraskans.