Hartzler: Regulations are strangling small businesses

In her weekly column, Fourth District Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler returns to her theme that jobs will come when rules and regulations that are putting roadblocks in the way of small businesses are eliminated.

The House took additional important action this week to address out-of-control federal regulations that are destroying jobs. The House has approved H.R. 10 – the Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which I co-sponsor. It’s a bill that reins in federal regulations by requiring congressional approval for any federal regulation with an economic impact of $100 million or more.


It should come as no surprise that excessive regulations strangle the economy and destroy jobs. According to the Small Business Administration, federal regulations cost our economy $1.75 trillion each year. A December, 2010 Obama Administration report on federal regulations listed more than 4,200 regulatory actions under development by federal agencies. We need to lift the burden on small businesses to encourage them to spend more, invest more, and create more jobs.

While visiting with businesses in my district I have heard horror story after horror story of how government regulation is making life difficult for small businesses and is impeding job creation. This bill curbs regulations and takes us one step closer to helping America’s small businesses to grow and prosper again. The REINS Act protects the American people and businesses by requiring Congress to take up-or-down votes on regulations that have an economic impact of $100 million or more. This will help businesses to expand and not tie them up with red tape. For too long, unelected federal bureaucrats have imposed burdensome regulations and their huge costs on the American people and business. The REINS Act will rein in the costly overreach of federal agencies with their job killing regulations.

In other news, the House approved H.R. 1633, the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act, which would remove burdensome, job-threatening regulations governing dust that is kicked up by driving on unpaved roads or by farmers working in their fields. The legislation would stop the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from altering the Clean Air Act to impose more stringent dust standards.

This EPA rule defies logic. Only a Washington bureaucrat could conceive of rules designed to regulate dust on working farms. The fact is that further regulation of dust by the EPA would severely hamper the ability of farmers, ranchers and other agribusinesses to conduct business. It could subject farm families to costly litigation and unnecessary stress at a time when they need to be focused on staying afloat financially and feeding the world.

Farmers, ranchers, and rural businesses are already subject to costly federal and state requirements to control dust. This bill provides regulatory relief to the people who put food on our tables and reins in yet another example of Washington’s bureaucracy run amok. I am committed to doing all I can to bring Missouri’s common sense to our nation’s Capitol and welcome your ideas and comments.