Regulatory Reform and Regulatory Relief
Floor Speech
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in another of a series of Republican freshman class Special Orders, this time to focus on our Nation's need for regulatory reform and regulatory relief.
As an American and a parent, I value the role of responsible regulations. Many regulations were designed with personal safety in mind, and these regulations make our workforce stronger. All too often, however, the Federal Government designs regulations that are often unnecessary and achieve little or no benefit at a very high cost. These regulations directly impact the hardworking men and women of northeast Georgia and across the Nation. Over the next hour, my colleagues and I will discuss the growing problem of regulation and why our Nation's economy so desperately needs regulatory relief.
I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the president of our freshman class, my dear friend and a tireless worker on this issue as well, the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Messer).
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. I thank the gentleman from Indiana.
I think you bring up a great point, and that's the issue of an unelected bureaucracy that is forcing sometimes businesses who just want to create, want to expand, and want to do those things. I appreciate your interest in this, and we are going to continue this fight because this matters to real people. This matters to Main Street. And when we matter to Main Street, then people understand what we're trying to do up here, and I think they then begin to have confidence that Washington has their best interest at heart.
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. I agree with that, and I thank the gentleman from Indiana. I appreciate his work on this.
It's now my pleasure to introduce someone who not only has come to Congress fired up about the issues that are going on, but has become my cochair on this regulatory working group and bringing forth, I believe, a fresh perspective from Florida.
It is now my pleasure to yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. I appreciate the gentlewoman from Missouri. She's right. That's the anger we feel and we hear from our constituents when they just don't understand what's going on here, and we need to continue that. I appreciate those words.
It's now my pleasure to yield to the gentleman from Kentucky to provide an insight into what we're seeing right now of a regulatory environment gone amuck in a lot of ways.
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. I appreciate the gentleman from Kentucky. He brings a good point. I think it would behoove all of us--we hear often on this floor we need to talk about jobs, we need to talk about job creation; and what we're finding right here is the very thing that is coming out of this bureaucracy, and this red tape is job-killing. And I think this is something we could find common ground on. I think it's a little bit of an agenda issue here, though.
When you come to Congress, you look for those who've stood the fight before you, and I am pleased tonight to yield some time to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Young), sponsor of the REINS Act, who has fought this fight before we got here. And I am pleased to welcome him as an honorary freshman tonight, as part of the sophomore class, because you've led the way, and I appreciate that, and I am happy to yield time to you tonight.
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Well, I appreciate it.
It's always easy to follow in the footsteps of those who fought the fight before us, and I appreciate what you've done and what others have done. We're going to continue that fight, because this matters to Americans, and that's what we've got to continue on. So I thank you for being here tonight.
It is now with great pleasure, another freshman who has come from just north of me in North Carolina, who has passionately fought for his constituents but also sees this from a different perspective, at this time, I want to yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Holding).
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. I thank the gentleman from North Carolina.
What we're dealing with here is dealing with jobs. And I think what you shared in your time back in the district is small businesses, as we've seen, small business persons comprise 44 percent of the total U.S. private payroll and create more than half of the nonfarm jobs in the gross domestic product here.
We've got to look at this. This is something that I think we can all come together, as the gentleman from Indiana stated just a few moments ago, this could be a bipartisan issue as we look to jobs and things we can bring to the floor. I know in talking to you and your passion about this, we came up here to try and help. We came up here to bring the voices of those who could not be up here on a given day to help them in their businesses and work hard.
I appreciate you so much for sharing your experiences in North Carolina. Really, what we're doing is fighting hard against these regulations so that we can see more jobs created.
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Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. It is that.
I appreciate the gentleman for being here tonight. I think this is something that we all see. In fact, in the 2011 speech, President Barack Obama stated that ``rules have gotten out of balance,'' and the result is ``a chilling effect on growth and jobs.'' I believe the President is correct about that. The rules have become so skewed that our Nation's regulatory system is at war with America's businesses.
In fact, he went ahead and even, in an executive order, stated that:
The last barriers we're trying to remove are outdated and unnecessary regulations. I've ordered a government-wide review, and if there are rules on the books that are needlessly stifling job creation and economic growth, we will fix them.
I'll tell you what. I will agree with the President on this. And I want to say this is something we can move forward with, and it's something that has an effect, because right now these burdens are killing American industry and American jobs.
When businesses are more concerned--right now, 40 percent is what I've seen in the latest survey from Morgan Stanley, said 40 percent of companies say policy uncertainty in Washington is preventing them from putting investments and job creation to work. This is something we've got to be a part of fixing because it matters, and it matters for jobs.
Industries such as manufacturing and technology are fighting to compete in a global market, but they first must survive the regulatory beast that is strangling innovation and growth.
Congress should be encouraging innovation to make it easier for businesses to bring new products or processes to the market. Outdated regulations should be cleared off the books--especially those created by unelected bureaucrats.
Let's go back to the basics of regulatory overhaul and restore a commonsense approach to regulations that encourage innovation and allow job creators to thrive.
I wrote to all the businesses in northeast Georgia and asked them to tell me how regulations are impacting their ability to grow and create jobs. Here are some of the responses that we received back:
Due to the new regulations that require businesses to issue 1099s to virtually everyone that we write a check to, we have to be more selective when we consider a new hire. I no longer have the opportunity to give unemployed folks a shot at a job to see how they are going to do. We have to make them full regular employees right out of the chute so we just don't look at hiring as many people, we look at other employees to work more hours.
Another of my constituents said that ``the biggest issue we face from the Federal Government is the EPA's lack of approval of products in a timely manner, and their removal of excellent, safe products from the market altogether.''
Unfortunately, regulatory burdens created by the EPA are an all too common story. A business owner in northeast Georgia wrote to me:
Currently the EPA is requiring off-road diesel engines to meet new tiers, or levels, of exhaust emission standards. These new standards are changing every 1 to 2 years. The final (we hope) regulations will be in place in 2015.
The result of the dramatic and frequent changes in regulations is the complete redesign of our products, which would allow us to retool and move manufacturing to the U.S., cannot happen cost effectively until 2015. At that time, we hope to move manufacturing of our products to Georgia.
I say hope to, because the rapid rise in regulations under the current administration may cause us to not move production at all.
We are all for protecting the environment and being good corporate citizens. However, the new regulations are burdensome, costly and add no value to the productivity of the product or the marketplace.
I couldn't have said that better myself. Regulations should be expedient and unambiguous, minimizing the uncertainty facing industries and businesses. This is how the government can facilitate, and no longer debilitate, economic growth.
I appreciate the comments from my colleagues tonight. It is clear that the need for regulatory relief is greater now than ever. As we've heard tonight, for the first time in history, the estimated cost of regulations is more than half the Federal budget itself. Let me just stop right there. For the first time in history, the estimated cost of regulations is more than half the Federal budget itself.
And we wonder why we're struggling with jobs right now. We wonder why our businesses are struggling with what they're going to do and how they're going to manage. I'm a firm believer, and it's been spoken of here tonight, there's many times we come to this House floor and we talk about things in ambiguous terms. We talk about the big picture. We talk about the process. People hear those conversations, they hear these words, but they're not really sure how it affects them. I'm a firm believer, both from a Democrat perspective, a Republican perspective, how we can best lead is by understanding and giving people information on why this matters to them.
I'm just going to spend a few minutes here tonight talking about that. It is troubling in a time where families are struggling to make ends meet, American families are paying almost $15,000 per year in hidden regulatory taxes. They are paying $14,678 in hidden regulatory taxes. You want to know how that affects you. That's going on and you want to know how we're causing people to spend and we're also at the same time saying we want to create new jobs, we want to create new opportunities.
Well, here's what happens. Instead of paying a hidden regulatory tax, American families could, one, buy a new car. A 2013 Ford Fiesta, $13,200; a 2013 Chevrolet Sonic, $14,185. We hear it all the time how manufacturing creates jobs on all levels, starting from the manufacturing, from the parts and the dealers and the auto parts that come into this, how they all work together.
Well, instead of paying these regulatory costs, why don't we get them to buy a new car? I mean, I think that's what the American people would like. I think that's what our auto dealers would like. That's what the others in the chain of automotive supply would like. But, instead, they're trapped and they're bound.
Another constituent writes:
Most of the rules and regulations that are preventing our business from growing are a result of ObamaCare. Many of the provisions in this legislation are counterproductive to the growth of a medical practice.
I want to go back to what it means to the person sitting around the table tonight who may have just somehow turned over here and said, what are they talking about in our nation's Capitol? What we're talking about is your pocketbook. What we're talking about is regulations that can help you spend money the way you want to, spend money for your family's future, spend money that revives our economy and strengthens us as a nation.
This is what we're talking about. You can send their child to college. One year of tuition and fees at the University of Georgia is $10,262. One year of tuition and fees at the University of Florida is $6,150. Instead, they're trapped paying almost $15,000 in hidden regulatory tax that comes through every year.
We all know the need for some rules for everyone to abide by. Make the regulations where they're simple to understand and inexpensive to comply with.
One of the problems I also see in Washington sometimes is we come to the floor and we talk about problems, but we never provide an answer. We never provide an answer on what can actually be done. As my colleagues and I have demonstrated, we are committed to providing regulatory relief to businesses and families.
There are several key pieces of legislation that are first and important steps in alleviating the regulatory burden. The first bill I introduced in Congress was H.R. 1493, the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2013. This legislation ensures the EPA cannot continue to enter into closed-door agreements with environmental groups without transparency and public participation. It does not affect the ability to bring suits. It just makes them clearer. Many of the costly rules and regulations that have impacted businesses and industries across the Nation have resulted from these backroom consent decrees. It's time we bring transparency and public participation back into the rulemaking process.
What else can we do? H.R. 367: require congressional approval for all major rules. We end the sue and settle EPA settlements--that's the one I just mentioned, H.R. 1493. We can require Federal agencies to choose the lowest-cost rulemaking alternative, H.R. 2122.
There are things that we can do. I believe the American public is looking to this place. They're looking to their Capitol for real solutions. They're looking to their Capitol for hope. They're looking for relief.
Every day, men and women get up and they wake their children up as I did this morning and they go to work and they go to make a better life. Many of those are small business owners wanting to add jobs, wanting to add to their businesses, but these regulations are killing that possibility right now. I believe when you look at what we've talked about here and my colleagues have talked about here on the floor, and I appreciate all of them being here, we bring to light what is really happening, and that is that regulations are not adding anything except government jobs. It's time we get back out and add jobs on Main Street, and when we add jobs on Main Street, everybody is impacted.
I want to thank my colleagues for joining me tonight and highlighting why American families and businesses so desperately need regulatory relief. Our freshmen are going to continue to do this, highlighting the real work that we believe matters to families and matters to Americans. Because when we're up here, we're up here doing your work. The thing that you sent us here to do was to work for you, and that's what we're going to continue to do and the freshman class are going to continue to do just that.
As we have mentioned tonight, not only are we talking about overregulation, we're going to be talking about many things in the weeks to come, and we're just letting the people know that we are here because we believe we can make a difference along with both sides of the aisle. Let's come together and see what we can do to make sure that not only regulations but other things get done so this government helps the businesses in our communities get back to work. That's what I want to be about, and I'm glad that we were here tonight to do that.
Before I close out, I do see a friend on the floor, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks). As we're through with our regulation part, I noticed that you had asked for time and I'm going to at this time yield to the gentleman from Arizona, my friend, Mr. Franks.
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