Feb 7: At the end of last year, Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, launched an effort which he says was "to bring the voice of job creators nationwide directly to Washington by asking for their input through correspondences as well as through the launch of AmericanJobCreators.com. Chairman Issa has now made all of the submissions he has received public, "so that both policymakers and the American people can evaluate for themselves the merits of the input job creators have made." In his State of the Union Address, President Obama highlighted the importance of making America a better place to do business saying, "to help our companies compete, we also have to knock down barriers that stand in the way of their success. To reduce barriers to growth and investment, I've ordered a review of government regulations. When we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them…"
Chairman Issa said, "The President has recognized the value in examining the regulatory barriers impeding private sector job creation. This project should complement what President Obama has already called on his Administration to do and in concert, lead to a robust and expansive discussion about what the best way forward is to stimulate our economy. Policymakers often hear anecdotal examples from job creators about how government regulations impede the type of permanent, private-sector job creation necessary to successfully lower unemployment. This project is an opportunity for private industry to put forward detailed and specific examples so that both the American people and policymakers can determine for themselves what actions can be taken to create jobs."
Chairman Issa has also announced a hearing for Thursday, February 10, at 9:30 AM on "Regulatory Impediments to Job Creation." Chairman Issa said, "This will be the first step in what must be a sustained effort to advance a dialogue that compliments President Obama's call to examine regulatory barriers that are impeding job creation. As Congress and the Administration begin the process of examining regulations, the voices of job creators and their experiences must be part of the broader discussion."
Issa continued saying, "For more than two years, we have been hearing anecdotal examples from job creators about how government regulations impede the type of permanent, private-sector job creation necessary to successfully lower unemployment. This is an opportunity for private industry to put forward detailed and specific examples so both the American people and policymakers can determine for themselves what actions can be taken to foster robust and lasting job creation. Hopefully, at the conclusion of this effort, both the President and lawmakers on each end of Capitol Hill will be able to use this broad input on regulatory barriers to job creation to make informed decisions about the best path forward for our economy."
Witnesses scheduled for the February 10, hearing include representatives from: National Association of Manufacturers; Black Chamber of Commerce; Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council; Western Growers Association; Mercatus Center at George Mason University; The Heritage Foundation; MCM Composites, LLC; and Buschur Electric.
The input provided to the Committee appears to be extremely detailed. As an example, the American Chemistry Council indicates in part, "There are several recent regulations that deserve scrutiny because of their anticipated consequences, including the "Boiler MACT" rules . . . and EPA's rules regulating greenhouse gas emissions from stationary sources. But these individual rules should be viewed as symptoms of a larger problem that must be addressed in order to ensure more transparent, fully-informed and balanced rulemakings in the future.
"Two serious root problems exist in the process used by federal regulatory agencies to develop and evaluate potential new regulations. First, the quality and scope of economic assessments to measure financial and employment impacts of proposed rules must be improved by ensuring that the costs of overlapping rules and economy-wide costs are measured. Second, regulatory agencies must establish clear standards for scientific data used to develop rules in order to ensure its objectivity and credibility. We believe EPA's economic models and approach to evaluating scientific information are flawed and deserve examination by the committee. Addressing these two fundamental problems will help ensure that rules better reflect: costs and benefits and will provide greater clarity about the true consequences or proposed regulations."
Access a release on the public release of industry submissions (click here). Access the submissions (approx 2000 pages) Chairman Issa has received (click here). Access the AmericanJobCreators.com website (click here). Access a release on the Feb. 10 hearing (click here). Access an 8-page list of entities (approx. 200) that received or asked for the letter to provide input (click here). Access the Feb. 10 hearing website (click here).
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