It is good that someone actually reads the bills that come before Congress. A Republican-sponsored bill that would have delayed new regulations until unemployment drops to 6% sounds like a good idea, except that the bill confused unemployment with employment. Until the error was caught, the bill read that new regulations would not take effect until employment dropped to 6%.

The mistaken language for H.R. 4078, the Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act:

“The Secretary of Labor shall submit a report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget when the Secretary determines that the Bureau of Labor Statistics average of monthly employment rates for any quarter beginning after the date of the enactment of this Act is equal to or less than 6.0 percent.”

As written, that would effectively stop new regulations permanently. There is no way that unemployment will ever reach 94%. There are probably some Republicans in Congress who think that a halt to new regulations is a good idea, but that is not going to happen.

The bill is scheduled for debate. Republican leaders are working to correct the misstep. However, a correction would require unanimous consent of the House. Otherwise, it would be sent back to the House Rules Committee for reconsideration. Being that there is Democratic opposition to the bill, that is the likely outcome.

There is some irony in this situation because Republicans had criticized Democrats for not reading Obama’s healthcare reform bill all the way through. Now it looks like both sides of the aisle are responsible for not reading their legislation.