Costly Red Tape Causing Burden on Businesses
Washington,
Feb 12 -
Costly Red Tape Causing Burden on Businesses
Jacksonville Journal Courier | 2/12/2013 |
By Congressman Aaron Schock
What could you have done with an extra $236.7 billion last year? If you’re a small business in Jacksonville, I’m sure you could have hired a new employee, expanded your business or given your workforce the additional tools they needed to help make your company more successful.
Instead, that astronomical figure is the cost the regulatory burden had on employers last year. However, this costly red tape doesn’t have to persist, and it’s time for Congress and the President to finally act.
In 2011, the House did its part and passed the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act. I proudly championed this legislation last Congress, and I am one of the first to sign on in support of it again as we begin the 113th Congress. The REINS Act would ensure that every major regulation, those with an economic impact of $100 million or more, would first have to be approved by a vote of Congress before it was enacted. While this legislation passed the House with bipartisan support, Senate Democrats refused to even bring it to the floor for a vote.
From 2009 to 2011, there were more than 400 regulations proposed by the current Administration which had an economic impact of more than $100 million. Or put another way, if you stacked the paper the rules issued just last year were printed on, it would stand nearly 13 feet high.
This is a startling statistic and a contributing factor for why the economy remains sluggish. The REINS Act would curb the practice of bureaucratic approval of costly regulations by requiring Congressional approval for all major rules. This would ensure Congress, and not agency bureaucrats, are accountable for expensive regulations, where the responsibility should lie.
No one will dispute that sound regulations have a place in our society. The issue we must confront has to do with the regulations that have an adverse impact on businesses of all sizes. These regulations are the side effect of having unelected bureaucratic rule-makers in Washington, who have never visited an Illinois farm or worked in a small business, and so have no understanding of what the onerous rules they promulgate mean to businesses and their workforce.
The impact of new regulations is real and costly. The Small Business Administration reports the average annual cost per household from federal regulations is $15,000, and the cost that federal regulations place on small businesses is a whopping $10,585 per employee.
When asked by a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Outlook Survey, 78% of small businesses surveyed reported that taxation, regulation and legislation from Washington make it harder for their business to hire more employees.
These are unsustainable costs and statistics, especially for Illinois households and businesses who are already feeling the financial pressures of a state whose one-party leadership has severely mismanaged its finances.
In Illinois, we need every tool at our disposal to grow our state’s economy. The REINS Act will help remove the crushing regulations that are preventing businesses from growing and creating the jobs we badly need in our state.
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