Behold, one of the most fundamental problems in Washington! Albeit the atmosphere is already toxic – or probably because of that – politicians decide the best way to proceed with their legislative agenda is to cram as many issues as possible into a bill, which does nothing but increase costs and inefficiency and create confusion and uncertainty.

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The examples are endless. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act – the sweeping financial reform legislation passed in the wake of the 2007–2009 Financial Crisis – was 848 pages long. Within five years, however, federal regulators had published 22,296 pages of proposed and final Dodd-Frank-related rules in the Federal Register (of those, 13,115 pages represented finalized rules).

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To put this into perspective, the National Bank Act of 1864, a law that helped establish our entire banking system, was just 29 pages long.  The Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which created the Federal Reserve system, was 30 pages, and the Banking Act of 1933 (a.k.a. Glass-Steagall), the law that separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), was just 37 pages.

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The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act itself ran 906 pages when enacted in 2010, with a companion reconciliation law adding another 55 pages. But implementing the law required federal agencies to produce thousands of additional pages of proposed and final regulations, guidance, explanations, and related material in the Federal Register.

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The sheer breadth and depth of the bill led former Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), one of the primary authors of the legislation, to say it’s “probably the most complex piece of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress” and “just beyond comprehension.”

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Guys, there is no way these mammoth bills are as efficient as they could – or should – be. To make any sort of progress, there is one thing we must do before all else: Simplify. Legislation needs to be clear, precise and uncomplicated – the exact opposite of what happens today.