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GOP Regulation Bill Suffers Typo

Updated: 6:03 p.m.

Republicans set out to ban new regulations until unemployment was below 6 percent, but an apparent typo in the bill means the trigger is actually a 6 percent “employment” rate instead.

The bill says a regulatory moratorium is in place until Labor 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.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office pointed out the error and had some fun with it.

“The Republicans have made a big typo in their latest message bill to nowhere. Looks like they should stop harping about ‘red tape’ and start looking for the Wite-Out,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said.

A Democratic aide explained that because the House Rules Committee already passed the rule for the bill, Republicans’ hands are tied.

They could ask for unanimous consent to amend the bill, but getting every Member, especially Democrats, on board could be difficult.

Another option could be to pass the bill as-is and fix it during enrollment, but because the Senate is almost certainly not going to take up this, it will never get as far as enrollment.

That leaves the more time-consuming option: Pulling the bill from the floor, correcting it and starting the process over. A Republican aide said they will ask for unanimous consent.

“As introduced and reported in the House, the bill correctly references ‘unemployment,’ not ’employment’ — all we’ve got is a minor clerical error in the committee print and it is our desire to fix it by unanimous consent. We hope the Democrats will cooperate,” said Doug Andres, GOP spokesman for the House Rules Committee.

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