US Chamber Begins Campaign Against Excessive Regulation

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

12 October 2010

The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) has called on federal and state lawmakers to help stem a tidal wave of regulations that are significantly impeding American businesses’ ability to create jobs.

“The regulatory impact on the business community is pervasive, insidious, and needs to be exposed,” said Thomas J. Donohue, USCC’s President and CEO. “American businesses are sinking under its weight, threatening to short-circuit our recovery and undermine our long-term growth.”

In the period before the US mid-term elections, USCC will devote significant resources to highlighting the excessive regulatory burden that has been generated in Washington, and then take its message to the states while members are on Congressional recess. Along with regional speeches by senior USCC officials, it will place print and online advertisements and continue its media push around the overregulation theme.

Donohue cited statistics from the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy estimating the total cost of federal regulations at USD1.75 trillion. The compliance burden is 36% higher for small businesses, or USD10,600 per employee. The US, he said, has added 40,000 new regulations to the books in the last decade.

Donohue called on Congress to stop passing sweeping, overly-broad laws that leave key decisions to regulators, and to exercise more vigorous oversight of rules with an economic impact of more than USD100m. He encouraged vigorous implementation of the Regulatory Flexibility Act that requires agencies to produce legitimate estimates of the impact their regulations will have on small businesses, and make sure their regulations will have the least impact possible.

With coincidental timing, the European Commission (EC) has also just issued its Communication on Smart Regulation that plans to improve the quality and relevance of European Union legislation. It will evaluate the impact of legislation during the whole policy cycle: when a policy is designed, when it is in place, and when it is revised. The EC will work with the European Parliament, Council and member states to encourage them to apply "smart regulation" in their work.

Impact assessments will continue to be carried out for all major legislative initiatives to provide evidence and transparency on all the benefits and costs of the policy choices available for political decision-making. The Commission will also include its existing actions to simplify legislation and reduce administrative burdens within its systematic review of legislation to ensure maximum impact of these activities.

The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said: "Smart regulation should ensure that European laws benefit people and businesses. The financial and economic crisis has shown that regulation has a necessary role to play. It must be well designed to reach its intended objectives and to deliver sustainable prosperity and consumer protection without strangling economic operators, in particular SMEs.”

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