Ernst Cracks Down on Bureaucrats Covering Up Costs

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate DOGE Caucus Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) is introducing the Regulations Evaluated to Determine The Anticipated Price and Effect Act (RED TAPE) Act, which prevents bureaucrats and agencies from fudging the numbers to hide how burdensome and expensive their regulations truly are.

President Joe Biden issued nearly 110,000 pages of regulations last year, the highest number ever. From November 2023 to January 2025, the Biden administration issued 60 final rules creating more than $600 billion in concealed regulatory expenses through the use of “net benefits” to obscure the actual cost of harmful regulations. One of the most prominent examples was when the Biden administration’s Department of Energy justified Green New Deal-inspired energy standardsfor household appliances by citing a $3.3 billion annual "savings" attributed to the so-called "Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases."

“The real threat to our democracy is an unchecked bureaucracy,” said Ernst. “President Biden’s greenie math has added up to hundreds of billions of dollars in hidden regulatory costs for Americans, and enough is enough. I am putting a stop to this nonsense by breaking out my scissors and cutting through the RED TAPE.”

House DOGE Caucus co-chair Pete Sessions (R-Texas) is introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives.

“In 2023, the Biden-Harris administration issued guidance that directed government agencies to heavily incorporate non-monetary values into their cost-benefit analyses of proposed regulations. Instead of measuring the fiscal costs and benefits of a regulation, federal agencies are now assigning monetary value to obscure qualitative data,” said Sessions. “These regulations come at a cost to taxpayers, and there must be integrity, transparency, and a clear commitment to measurable results for the American people in this process. I am proud to work with Senator Ernst on this vital legislation to ensure mismanagement and waste are eliminated from our government.”

“As DOGE Caucus Chair, Senator Ernst is delivering on her promises to bring about concrete changes with the RED TAPE Act," said Peter Holland, Federal Affairs Director at the Foundation for Government Accountability. “This bill puts an end to career bureaucrats hiding the real costs of their regulations behind vague, arbitrary justifications that only increase the size of government. Senator Ernst is leading the charge for transparency in the Senate, cutting through the red tape and protecting the hard-earned tax dollars of everyday Americans.”

Click here to view the bill.

Background:

As chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, Senator Ernst has unveiled a  $2 trillion plan to cut down federal spending, save taxpayer dollars, and downsize the government in addition to her telework report that exposed an absent federal workforce.

Her playbook has already racked up a win with the announcement of the sale of the Wilbur J. Cohen building, a 1.2 million square foot monument to waste, where just 72 of 3,341 workers were showing up to work.

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