PRESS RELEASE: Heartland Institute Experts React to Wisconsin Passing REINS Act

Published June 15, 2017

Yesterday, Wisconsin became the first state to pass the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. Governor Scott Walker is expected to sign the measure.

The following statements from experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Media Specialist Billy Aouste at [email protected] and 312/377-4000 or (cell) 847/445-7554.


“Wisconsin legislators should be applauded for their passage of the REINS Act. There is no bill better suited for cutting back on the scope and power of government than the REINS Act. The act gives the legislature the authority to limit the power of unelected bureaucrats while leaving state agencies appropriate flexibility to implement new regulations.

“It is important to remember the REINS Act does not prevent agencies from making new regulation. It is designed to ensure that any new rules with a major impact on the economy face scrutiny by elected officials, who are accountable to the voters. The REINS Act is an ideal first step in shrinking the bloated bureaucracy in Madison. I hope other states follow Wisconsin’s lead.”

Matthew Glans
Senior Policy Analyst
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000


“One small step for legislative responsibility, one giant leap for constitutional restraints on executive authority in Wisconsin. The legislative branch alone is charged with making laws, yet for decades legislators have shirked this responsibility by delegating this power to executive agencies and then complained when administrative agency bureaucrats went beyond what the law allowed or what legislators said they intended. Every state should enact a REINS act and the federal government should adopt it as well.”

H. Sterling Burnett
Research Fellow, Environment & Energy Policy
The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Environment & Climate News
[email protected]
312/377-4000


“The passage of Senate Bill 15 is a sterling example of how Wisconsin is leading the nation in protecting taxpayers and small business owners from over-regulation and government excess. Wisconsin is the first state in the nation to pass such legislation, reining in out-of-control state bureaucrats and holding them accountable to lawmakers, and therefore, the people. If signed into law by Gov. Scott Walker, state agency rules or regulations with economic impacts exceeding $10 million would require approval from lawmakers to take effect.

“More accountability and more oversight over the unelected, undemocratic administrative state are unequivocally good things for the people. Our government was designed to function with each branch working to keep the others in check, so no one branch could overpower the others. Over time, though, lawmakers have ceded authority and power to the executive branch, causing the government itself to become bloated and unresponsive to the people’s needs. Wisconsin lawmakers are saying ‘enough,’ and taking their power back from an engorged administrative ‘deep state’ within the executive branch.

“Lawmakers in other states should notice Wisconsin’s ground-breaking efforts to restore legislative oversight, and begin efforts to replicate the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act in their own states.”

Jesse Hathaway
Research Fellow, Budget and Tax Policy
The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Budget & Tax News
[email protected]
312/377-4000