Lankford: I want your red-tape stories

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The nation’s federal rulemaking process has become overly complicated and unaccountable. Burdensome regulations have increased on hardworking family businesses and big corporations. Some regulations are duplicative or outdated.

For years, there hasn’t been a way for the general public to voice their frustrations with harmful regulations to the Congress. Businesses and families struggle to receive the information they need to navigate the federal government.

In March, I launched the #CutRedTape Initiative with my Democrat counterpart on the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota. The purpose of this initiative is to allow American families and business owners the opportunity to share their stories and insight.

Not all regulations are bad, but it is clear that there are excesses and significant federal burdens. The federal rulemaking process has become very complicated and unaccountable, and it has resulted in unnecessarily burdensome regulations for many people and businesses across the country. When government gets big, people become small. With over 25,000 pages of proposed rules published annually in the Federal Register by many of the federal government’s 430-plus agencies, federal regulations today place a $2 trillion burden on the economy.

The stories individuals share with us through the initiative are vital in our effort to improve our federal government’s regulatory process. We have to start with how regulations affect Americans and businesses that have been challenged by them directly. The stories will provide guidance to our subcommittee so we can start to develop common-sense ideas that improve federal regulations and make federal agencies more accessible and more efficient. The #CutRedTape Initiative will help us achieve this goal in a meaningful, bipartisan manner, and begin the path to identify trends and ideas that can develop the regulatory process.

Since the launch of the #CutRedTape Initiative website, we’ve received submissions on Medicare regulations, education regulations, and even a request for a sunset provision on new regulations. It’s easy to submit your story. Your submission will remain confidential, and we will not share your personal information with any federal agency without your permission. I hope you will take the time to share your story because I want to hear it. How do federal regulations affect you? How can we cut red tape in your life or place of work?

A simple online submission might help the subcommittee address the burdensome federal regulation that is slowing down your family or business.

James Lankford is the junior U.S. senator from Oklahoma.