Democrat President unanimously enacted Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which

required retrospective regulatory reviews.

Repealing the SUNSET Rule means the Biden Administration explicitly does not know or care
about the harm federal regulations may be causing Texans and all Americans. Repeal amounts
to an effort to put the government’s head in the sand, and it would cost both lives and money.
We regularly hear from constituents and small business owners that, while regulations may have
good intentions, they can be debilitating and job killing.

Sunsetting laws and regulations when they’re no longer needed isn’t a new idea. For example,
the State of Texas has a Sunset Advisory Commission, which reviews the ongoing need for
entire government agencies and makes recommendations about whether the legislature should
renew them. This has had a positive economic impact in Texas of approximately $945.6 million,
compared with expenditures of only $37.2 million for the Sunset Commission. 2

As the SUNSET Rule detailed, HHS has not adequately been reviewing its regulations. For
example, 85% of regulations before 1990 had not been touched. 3 HHS now claims some of
2F

these untouched regulations might have been reviewed at some point and left untouched because
they work as intended. But there is no chance 85% of HHS’ regulations work exactly as
intended, and HHS has set forth no evidence to indicate that they do. The SUNSET Rule itself
cited nonpartisan studies showing that the costs of regulations frequently exceed (sometimes by a
lot) what was projected at the time of promulgation. 4 HHS has failed to consider this aspect of
the problem in its proposal.
HHS now proposes to let regulations stay on the books forever without review because they
would be “too hard” to review. This is absurd. If Texans and all Americans have to stay current
with these regulations in order to comply with them, it is not too much to ask an agency with a
$1.5 trillion budget to review its regulations once every 10 years.

HHS claims there is no need to systematically review every regulation, because “stakeholders”
sometimes speak to the agency about regulations that should be amended. This is nonsense.
Your average individual does not have the time or clout to speak to the agency about regulations.
Only powerful special interests can do so in a way that will get the agency’s attention. The
SUNSET Rule provides a mechanism for every American to participate in the process and have
their voices heard. The proposed repeal would empower the powerful at the expense of everyday
Americans and small businesses.

HHS has not adequately explained why it all of a sudden thinks the costs of the SUNSET Rule
are four times what it estimated earlier this year, in violation of Fox v. FCC, 556 U.S. 502
(2009). But even if HHS is right (we have our doubts), the costs would still be dwarfed by the

2
www.sunset.texas.gov/about
3
86 Fed. Reg. 5694 at 5699.
4
86 Fed. Reg. 5694 at 5697-98.

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benefits. An outside analysis found the benefits of the SUNSET Rule would be up to $27.8
billion, plus saved lives. 5 Again, HHS has ignored this important aspect of the problem.
4F

Lastly, since the SUNSET Rule is HHS’ current plan for periodically reviewing regulations,
repeal will violate Section 610 of the RFA’s requirement to have a written plan to periodically
review regulations. See 5 U.S.C. 610.

We urge you to reconsider and withdraw your proposal to repeal the SUNSET Rule. Texans
cannot continue to be bound by job- and life-killing regulations whose costs do not justify their
meager benefits. 6 5F

Sincerely,

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Brian Harrison Steve Allison
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Kyle Biedermann Briscoe Cain
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Jeff Cason Jay Dean
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Sam Harless Cole Hefner
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

5
https://www.mercatus.org/publications/regulation/benefits-hhs%E2%80%99s-sunset-regulation
6
See, e.g., Broughel and Viscusi, The Mortality Cost of Expenditures, Contemporary Economic Policy (ISSN 1465-
7287) Vol. 39, No. 1, January 2021, 156-167 (explaining how regulations can cost lives when they become too
burdensome); Broughel and Chambers, Federal Regulation and Mortality in the 50 States Risk Analysis Vol. 00,
No. 0, 2021 (finding that a 1% increase in federal regulation of state economies is associated with an increase in an
index of state mortality of up to 1.35%).

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____________________________________ ____________________________________
Jacey Jetton Matt Krause
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Stan Lambert J.M. Lozano
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Mayes Middleton Jim Murphy
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Tan Parker Four Price
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Glenn Rogers Matt Schaefer
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Valoree Swanson Steve Toth
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

____________________________________ ____________________________________
Tony Tinderholt Cody Vasut
Texas State Representative Texas State Representative

CC: Shalanda Young, Director, Office of Management and Budget

Susan Rice, Director, Domestic Policy Council
Ron Klain, White House Chief of Staff

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