More than 616 business groups recently signed a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)  and Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) urging them to use their positions to pass the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017 (RAA). The RAA recently passed the House with a vote of 238-183. The Senate has failed to pass RAA on three previous occasions after House passage. Democrats hold enough seats in the Senate to filibuster the bill.

The letter states: “We believe that federal regulations should be narrowly tailored, supported by strong and credible data and evidence, and impose the least burden possible, while implementing congressional intent. Now is the time for Congress to reclaim its constitutional legislative authority by ensuring agencies implement congressional intent, not the intent of the agency.”

The signees include the American Trucking Associations, Associated Builders and Contractors, the Food Industry Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Vinyl Institute, the Roofing Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The RAA is opposed by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards, which called the bill “nothing more than a back-door way to gut enforcement of existing legislation and future safeguards that big-money interests do not want.” Coalition members include the AFL-CIO, the American Lung Association, Clean Air Watch, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union and the Sierra Club.