House Judiciary Committee Holds Hearing on Federal Regulations, Reform

Recently, the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law held a hearing on The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform. Witnesses included the Hon. Howard A. Shelanski, administrator at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Hon. C. Boyden Gray of Boyden Gray & Associates, PLLC, Professor Sally Katzen, visiting professor at NYU School of Law and senior advisor at Podesta Group; Dr. John F. Morrall III, affiliated senior scholar at the Meracatus Center at George Mason University; and Nicole Riley, Virginia State director at the National Federation of Independent Business.

Shelanksi discussed the importance of regulatory flexibility for small businesses, as well as for others:

“While increasing the predictability of the regulatory process through timely review of rules and publication of regulatory plans and agendas is essential, the executive orders also make clear that flexibility and removal of unnecessary burdens are essential elements of the federal rulemaking process. As I have previously testified, ensuring regulatory flexibility for small businesses and reducing regulatory burdens for everyone through the retrospective review process are high priorities for me as administrator.”

Meanwhile, Riley was adamant about the burdens of regulations on small businesses:

“The statistics back up the stories I hear. According to NFIB’s monthly survey of its members, Small Business Economic Trends, ‘government requirements and red tape’ is the second-most-frequent response to the question: What is the single most important problem facing your business today? More than one in five small-business owners answered that regulation is the biggest problem they face. The only problem ranking higher is taxes.” – Kaitlyn Dwyer