By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Both Congresswoman Martha Roby (R) from Montgomery and Congressman Robert Aderholt (R) from Haleyville issued written statements announcing that they had voted for legislation which reduce the regulatory burdens that are hampering small business growth and costing America jobs.
Rep. Roby said, “People are tired of costly regulation and interference by the federal government. Business owners want Washington to get out of the way.”
Rep. Aderholt said, “Too often bureaucratic red tape and needless, costly federal regulations keep America’s innovators and small businesses from creating jobs. While our nation’s small businesses have created 64 percent of all new jobs in the U.S. in the past 15 years, they face an annual regulatory burden that is 36 percent higher than larger firms.”
Rep. Roby said, “At a time when small businesses across our country are struggling to keep their doors open, it is critical that Congress remove unnecessary burdens that only make it harder for businesses to succeed. As I travel throughout the Second Congressional District, I hear the same message over and over again: people are tired of costly regulation and interference by the federal government. Business owners want Washington to get out of the way. It is difficult for businesses to grow and hire new workers when Washington is creating an uncertain climate full of new regulations, higher taxes, and unfunded mandates. This bill is an important step towards cutting through the red tape and getting our nation’s economy back on track.”
Representative Aderholt said, “Under the current Administration, businesses have seen a surge in rules and regulations published in the Federal Register. These 41,662 pages of compliance requirements would cost $56.6 billion and result in paperwork that would take 114.1 million hours to complete. Further, the Dodd-Frank law has produced regulations with more than $7 billion in direct costs and regulations imposed in ObamaCare come with an estimated $17.1 billion in private-sector burdens. It is unfortunate that this Administration does not see the correlation between bureaucratic red tape put forth over the past few years and the stifled economic recovery and growth.”
The Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act would: freeze regulations that harm the economy until unemployment reaches 6% or below, require that independent federal agencies, like the National Labor Relations Board, comply with the same regulatory review requirements as other agencies and require more transparency of unfunded mandates which are imposed on state and local governments, create a streamlined process for consideration of federal permits for construction projects, and make the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) conduct more thorough cost-benefit analyses of proposed regulations.
It should not take an act of Congress to get bureaucracy out of the way of our nation’s job creators, but I am committed to doing just that when Washington is blatantly standing in the way of jobs and economic growth,” concluded Rep. Aderholt.
The Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act passed in the U.S. House by a margin of 245 to 172; but faces an uncertain future in the Senate where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) from Nevada has blocked numerous House measures addressing jobs and the economy including even the federal budget.
