|
Townhall...
Stronger Regulatory
Enforcement Will Spur Small Business Job Creation
By Sam Graves
Small businesses are the cornerstone of the American economy. They
employ over half of the country’s private sector workforce and create
seven out of every ten new jobs. The answer to our country’s long-term
unemployment problem lies in the growth of these small businesses. They
are our job creators, and it is imperative that we create an economic
climate that allows them to thrive.
Unfortunately, the growth of American small businesses has been
hindered by excessive and unnecessary federal regulations. These
regulations place costly and, oftentimes, unmanageable burdens on the
backs of small business owners that inhibit many from hiring additional
employees, and even forcing some to close. Studies have shown that
small businesses must spend more per employee to comply with federal
regulations than their large competitors. The Big Government practices
of the Obama administration have only increased these regulatory
burdens.
Overregulation is not a new phenomenon. In 1980, Congress passed the
Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) legislation aimed at relieving the
stress of onerous regulation on small businesses. The RFA mandates that
all federal agencies examine the impact of their proposed rules on
small businesses, and if those impacts are significant, the agency must
consider less burdensome alternatives. However, it does not require
they choose the least burdensome choice.
While its intent is good, the RFA in practice does not effectively
protect the interests of small businesses from federal regulations.
Many federal agencies simply ignore RFA requirements—and this should
not be an option. We have the RFA for a reason and federal agencies
should be following it and held accountable for their actions.
As Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, I recently held a
hearing to examine how we can strengthen the RFA and ensure that it is
being enforced. We heard from witnesses who testified about the failure
of the RFA to protect their interests. This cannot continue.
During the hearing, Bill Squires Sr., Vice President of Blackfoot
Telecommunications Group in Montana said, “It is the view of our sector
that the RFA is not doing what it was designed to do in terms of its
application and interaction with regulations that emerge.” Later in the
hearing he said, “Routinely all we are afforded is a couple of
paragraphs tacked onto the end of a rulemaking that states that
alternative regulation was considered, but rejected. …The [RFA] simply
does not seem to compel anything more than a nod to the fact that it
exists.”
When agencies impose burdensome rules and costly regulations on small
businesses, it hinders job creation and will continue to slow our
economic recovery. Unelected federal bureaucrats should not be in the
position to execute overreaching directives without any examination of
their actions.
We have a responsibility to protect America’s small businesses from the
excessive federal regulations that crush jobs and put many out of
business. Getting Americans back to work and our economy back on track
is priority number one for my House Republican colleagues and me.
Eliminating the loopholes in the RFA and ensuring it is strongly
enforced is a logical first step in doing this.
Read it at Townhall
|
|
|
|
