Stage is Set for Issa's Regulatory Campaign
The California congressman who chairs the House Oversight panel released 1,947 pages of submissions from trade groups identifying existing or pending regulations they claim are burdensome and eliminate jobs. The committee has set a 9:30 a.m. EST hearing on Thursday.
U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Monday posted a trove of 1,947 pages of submissions from various trade groups -- they range from the International Sleep Products Association to the American Chemistry Council, American Meat Institute, and the Business Roundtable, among many others.
The Business Roundtable listed environmental regulations, financial reform, and health care and retirement benefits as its chief concerns. Kerns Trucking Inc.'s president, Clyde C. Kerns, wrote that DOT, EPA, MSHA, OSHA, FMCSA, and NHTSA rules "are all bringing ever heavy burdens upon Kerns business with redundant, misguided, irresponsible regulation."
Issa invited more than 160 associations, private companies, and think tanks to submit, and their list of targeted regulations is wide. FMCSA's hours of service changes and CSA 2010 safety measurement system, EPA's greenhouse gas regulation and new MACT rules for industrial boilers and process heaters, TSA's November 2009 proposal to impose greater security requirements on aircraft repair stations, and many more are included.
The House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, which Issa chairs, has scheduled a one-hour hearing Feb. 10 titled Regulatory Impediments to Job Creation. This hearing's witness list includes Jay Timmons, CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers; Harry Alford, CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce; Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center; and James Gattuso, senior research fellow in regulatory policy at The Heritage Foundation. The hearing will give Issa and the Republican majority an opportunity to summarize their approach to regulatory reform. "The President has recognized the value in examining the regulatory barriers impeding private sector job creation. This project should complement what President Obama has already called on his Administration to do and in concert, lead to a robust and expansive discussion about what the best way forward is to stimulate our economy," Issa said in a statement on the committee's website. "Policymakers often hear anecdotal examples from job creators about how government regulations impede the type of permanent, private-sector job creation necessary to successfully lower unemployment. This project is an opportunity for private industry to put forward detailed and specific examples so that both the American people and policymakers can determine for themselves what actions can be taken to create jobs."