Directing Committees to Review Regulations From Federal Agencies

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Ms. VELÁZQUEZ. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, small businesses are central to the economic recovery currently underway. Unfortunately, there are many obstacles for entrepreneurs to overcome in order to be successful. One of the most notable is regulatory burden, the hours upon hours it takes an entrepreneur to navigate and complete Federal, State, or municipal government paperwork.

This impediment has grown dramatically in recent years. According to the SBA's Office of Advocacy, rules imposed from the Federal Government now cost Americans some $1.75 trillion each year. This is 50 percent higher than the $1.1 trillion in costs reported in 2005. We know that this burden falls heaviest on small firms. Research shows that small businesses face an annual regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee, an amount that is 36 percent higher than those facing large firms. And Federal agencies continue to release tens of thousands of pages of regulations each year.

With this problem getting worse, it is certainly worth Congress' time and attention. In the Committee on Small Business, we have been reviewing regulations in a bipartisan fashion for years. As a result of this examination, we have called on Federal agencies to modify or eliminate regulatory requirements that adversely affect small firms, whether they are related to medical equipment at CMS, accounting requirements at the SEC, real estate procedures at HUD, or environmental regulations at the EPA.

The reality is that we already do what this resolution calls for. As a result, today's resolution does not help one small business person. It sets up a bureaucratic process here in Congress with the goal of producing a list of regulations. How does a "list'' help small businesses? It doesn't. Anyone that has spent 5 minutes with a small business owner knows that this is a top problem for them. This resolution is nothing more than a vehicle to rehash old politically motivated fights and just creates more paperwork here in Congress.

Instead of approving this green eyeshade bookkeeping resolution, what we need to do is make sure that the actual tools already available to reduce regulatory burden are effective. This includes the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which mandates that Federal agencies consider the potential economic impact of Federal regulations as well as conduct periodic reviews of rules that have a significant economic impact on businesses. Making these laws work better--or expanding them further--is what we should be doing instead of passing this resolution. Requiring tougher and more agency reviews of regulation as well as considering broader economic effects of regulations are necessary. Here in the House, our committee reported bipartisan legislation in the 110th Congress to do just that.

As we navigate this issue over the next 24 months, we cannot lose sight of who we are trying to actually help. It is the small business owner that needs our assistance. Unfortunately, if this resolution is the best we can do, small businesses may have to wait a long time for real and meaningful relief.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all time on the resolution be yielded back and that H. Res. 72 be adopted so we can move to consider legislation creating jobs.

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Ms. VELÁZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, the resolution that we are considering today will not help one single small business. It will not reduce paperwork for entrepreneurs nor will it result in a less intrusive government.

This resolution will do none of this.

The previous speaker was talking about the fact that yesterday we held a hearing in the Small Business Committee discussing the burden of 1099s. We know that there is bipartisan agreement on this issue, so let's fix it instead of wasting time, hours here that will take us nowhere. Why can't the Republican leadership bring the issue of the 1099, where there is bipartisan agreement, and get it done? That will help small businesses, and it will create jobs. But this resolution will not achieve that.

What it does do is create bureaucratic bookkeeping requirements for House committees. I guess for some this might be a good sound bite, but this does not provide any concrete solutions for our Nation's small business owners who are drowning in government regulations.

If we want real change, we have to transform how executive branch agencies create and approve regulations. This means ensuring that businesses are given meaningful involvement in the process, not just a token role. It also means that agencies should consider the impact on the business community before they begin writing the regulation, not when it is nearly complete.

Changes like this are long overdue. The reality is that the regulatory burden has grown dramatically under both Republican and Democratic administrations, rising by over $30 billion under George W. Bush's administration alone.

This is a bipartisan problem that needs a bipartisan solution. With this in mind, I look forward to working with anyone that is interested in bringing real regulatory relief to small businesses.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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