South Carolina Freedom Initiative 2025

The government has a role in creating fair and equally applied rules that foster an opportunity rich environment for all people while protecting against significant public harm. However, that role should be limited, and those responsible for developing and enforcing those rules should be held accountable. Elected lawmakers must reassert their proper role in developing and finalizing laws that include clear and unambiguous guidance for enforcement.

One tool for instituting more oversight by legislative branches is the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. While the details of the REINS Act can vary, the policy aims to require legislative approval for “major” rules that have an economic impact above a certain threshold, such as $10 million per year in the case of a state-level regulation. This tool gives elected officials, and by extension the voters that elect them, more of a voice in the implantation of rules and regulations.

This reform is forward-looking, and as such would only apply to newly proposed rules. It gives lawmakers the opportunity to prevent the implementation of overly burdensome regulations, providing an important check on the often virtually unrestrained power of the administrative branch to implement laws at their discretion.