Republicans Go After ‘Silly’ Laws House Votes To Smooth Process For Killing ‘Mistakes In The Law’

Accelerating a bid to roll back federal regulations, the Republican-dominated House established an unprecedented legislative process Tuesday to help cancel out rules and laws that are “silly, dumb and ludicrous.”

By a vote of 271-146, House Republicans - joined by 46 Democrats - created a streamlined mechanism that greatly limits debate and expands the power of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., to kill federal regulations.

The action would come on twicemonthly “Corrections Days,” which leading Democrats warned force hasty decisions and House Republicans said would restore public confidence in government.

“Up until now, there has been no special procedure for handling relatively non-controversial fixes to obviously ridiculous mistakes in the law,” said Rep. Barbara Vucanovich, R-Nev. “With this new Corrections Days procedure, we can finally show the American people that Congress is working for them, instead of against them.”

Any regulation marked for extinction would also have to go to the Senate for approval and to the president for a signature. The Senate currently has no similar procedure for swift repeal of laws and regulations, but Gingrich predicted Tuesday that the upper chamber would “adopt a similar approach” soon.