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We must ease federal burdens to foster
jobs |
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December 10, 2011 |
By U.S. Congressman Raul Labrador
During my eight-hour-long jobs forum in Boise
last month, we asked job creators from more than
20 Idaho businesses what we could do to
encourage them to start hiring again. The
consensus was that a combination of tax reform
and regulatory reduction would stabilize our
economy and help them create jobs. We must ease
the burdens foisted by government onto America’s
job creators.
This week in the House of Representatives, my
colleagues passed two bills that would put a
halt to Obama’s radical environmental agenda. I
cosponsored a bill with Congresswoman Kristi
Noem of South Dakota that would delay the
implementation of Environmental Protection
Agency’s (EPA) Dust Regulations that could have
detrimental effects on rural Idaho. Also, I
voted in favor of the Regulations from the
Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act.
At a time of uncertainty, this Administration
continues to hinder our economic growth. The EPA
and other federal government agencies continue
to impose job-killing regulations with the
leadership of President Obama. Congressional
Republicans have been passing legislation that
would limit the federal government’s involvement
in the private sector and foster prosperity.
However, the American people may not reap the
benefits of this legislation because it will
never see the light of day in the
Democratically-controlled Senate.
Idahoans know that dust is a reality of Western
life. We see dust on our dirt roads, when we
farm our land or when we maintain our ranches.
Only in Washington, D.C. could such a bizarre
and nonsensical regulation, such as the one to
regulate dust, ever be thought up and, worse,
implemented. I am proud to cosponsor
Congresswoman Noem’s bill because I know that,
unless we stop them, the federal government
could designate many more nonattainment areas.
This would ultimately devastate Idaho’s
agricultural and natural resource industries for
years to come.
While our uncertain and unfriendly tax structure
remains a great deterrent to job creation and
economic stabilization, excessive regulatory
burdens often go unnoticed by the general
public, but not by the businesses who must
comply with them. Federal Agencies, housed in
Washington, D.C. and made up of unelected civil
servants, such as the Department of Agriculture,
the Environmental Protection Agency,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
and Mine Safety and Health Administration are
pushed by the president to impose federal
regulations on employers and individuals in
Idaho according to his agenda without
Congressional oversight. The REINS Act would
provide the necessary accountability of the
executive branch as it uses government agencies
to create and enforce burdensome regulations for
America’s job creators.
In 2010, the Federal Register reached a record
length of 81,405 pages and included many new
job-killing regulations. According to the
Government Accountability Office, 1,827
rulemaking proceedings during the first half of
Fiscal Year 2011 alone were “significant,”
“substantive” or “major,” as each had an
anticipated economic impact of at least $100
million annually. The Competitive Enterprise
Institute estimates that “regulatory costs of
$1.752 trillion absorb 11.9 percent of the U.S.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at $14.649
trillion. Clearly, this administration has had
no trouble increasing the size of government.
It’s time it makes job creation a higher
priority, as well. |
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