U.S. Chamber Launches New Regulatory Project

In our view, Delaware has exactly the same problem, in large part because of DNREC.

Most regulations are necessary to ensuring there are clear rules for operating a complex society. Economists, entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens all understand that balancing regulation with the need for economic growth is essential to ensuring the quality of life for Americans.

But excessively costly regulations are harming the economy and inhibiting job creation. “Regulatory uncertainty” is one reason employers are reluctant to hire and we’re witnessing a jobless recovery.

Compliance costs harm small businesses – the jobs engine of the economy – the most. Businesses with fewer than 20 employees incur regulatory costs 42% higher than larger businesses of up to 500 employees.

The average regulatory cost for each employee of a small business exceeds $10,000 per year.

And the problem is getting worse, as we are seeing an unprecedented increase in regulations:

• HHS is expected to release 30,000 pages of new healthcare regulations, many aimed at small employers.
• EPA is expanding its reach to carbon dioxide emissions by every business big and small.
• And 11 different agencies are drafting 243 new rules governing the cost and access to credit for businesses.

We Must Restore Balance to the Process and Fix What’s Broken

The process has lost all balance as Congress has yielded power to the federal agencies without proper accountability, and without taking responsibility for what the agencies are doing in Congress’s name.

These burdens are imposed through a system that operates without effective checks and balances, or accountability. Currently nearly all major regulations go into effect without our elected representatives in Congress ever voting on them.

What’s more, the agencies often are not transparent. Unaccountable agencies rarely have to justify decisions they make that harm the livelihoods of millions of Americans because the process does not allow for effective judicial or other independent review of major rules (lack of checks and balances).

Agencies can do this because they do not have to prove their assertions are based on sound fact, science or economics. Rather, all the agency must do is point to anything in the agency record that rationally supports their assertion, and the courts give the agency deference over the public in deciding the validity of the rule.

We must reform the process to make it more effective and accountable to the people to be sure regulations are of the highest quality.

There is a consensus emerging that we need more checks and balances to improve the process. Legislation is needed to ensure sensible regulation while also ensuring that federal agencies are held accountable to the people.

The Chamber Will Urge Reforms to the Regulatory Process

The Chamber’s Project on Regulatory Reform supports efforts to reform the process which include:

• Requiring that economic and employment impacts of major rules are independently evaluated and disclosed to the public so that the costs of rules are clear up front to everyone;
• Providing measures for affected members of the public to obtain effective independent review of agency actions by affected members of the public (checks and balances);
• Providing for an up-or-down recorded vote by Congress for regulations deemed to have a major impact on jobs; and
• Providing for independent periodic review of current regulations and sun-setting those deemed ineffective or unnecessary (additional checks and balances).

We are pleased that Congress is beginning to take action in this area, as evidenced by initial activity related to the REINS Act and others.

Our Project on Regulatory Reform will work to continually tell the story to the American people about the massive costs of procedural defects and excessive regulations on jobs and on their personal and economic freedom.

And we will work with Congress and the Administration to restore badly needed balance, restraint, and common sense to the regulatory process.