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Committee on Small Business Holds Hearing Examining the Biden Administration’s Failure to Consider Small Businesses in the Regulatory Process
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) led a full Committee on Small Business hearing titled “Burdensome Regulations: Examining the Biden Administration’s Failure to Consider Small Businesses.” Chairman Williams issued the following statement after today’s hearing.
“Since day one, this Administration has unleashed a regulatory onslaught on Main Street,” said Chairman Williams. “We’ve seen $1.6 trillion in regulations since President Biden took office. Every dollar spent on compliance is one less that they will be able to spend on expanding their operations. Today’s hearing highlighted potential solutions as the Committee continues to look for legislative solutions to protect our nations job creators.”
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Watch the full hearing here.
Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:
Chairman Williams: “Over the last 15 months, the committee has been sending information request to agencies on rules they put out and we have often found that if an economic analysis took place, it would often fail to take into account the cumulative effect of their regulations coming out of Washington. So, Mr. Ray, given your past experience working on regulations in the Trump Administration, how would you recommend that we ensure agencies don't only view their actions in a vacuum and turn a blind eye to the other regulations harming small businesses?” Mr. Ray: “Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question. I think absolutely essential to remedying this problem, which you highlight and which is indeed a very grave problem, would be some sort of regulatory budget. The budget should apply both at the level of individual agencies and at the level of the federal government, as a whole. Any given family who's trying to make ends meet has to think about all their expenses put together. Only federal agencies are able to think just about the cost that they are imposing, in particular rulemakings or in the best case scenario, in a suite of rulemakings. Federal agencies and the federal regulatory system as a whole should have to play by the same rules that American families do when they engage in a holistic budgeting exercise.”
Rep. Stauber: “I know that small businesses under the Biden Administration, the small businesses are struggling. In this letter that I put forward, for small businesses with 50 or fewer employees in the, the cost, in the manufacturing sector, small manufacturers incur costs of 34,671 per employee per year. $34,671 per employee per year. You gotta be kidding me. This is the regulations that are put on our manufacturing and small business. Nobody's going to convince me that that's good for that small business. Mr. Goldbeck, how does the economic impact of regulations issued by the Biden Administration compare to previous Administrations?” Mr. Goldbeck: “Congressman, to date, the total costs accumulated by agencies under the current administration is more than five times that of the Obama Administration's total at this point in time.”
Rep. Bean: “Mr. Smith, you represent thousands of businesses, with NFIB. I've asked multiple businesses that have sat in the same chairs that you have sat ‘how is the regulatory environment right now on a scale from 1 to 10?’ One being, you know what? It's just the cost of doing business. Ten is just, we've never seen it like this before. What would you rate the current environment?” Mr. Smith: “Thank you, Congressman. I would rate it as a ten. And in fact, there are recent numbers that April had the most significant, economically significant rules dating all the way back to the 1980s in that month alone, and that this Administration is currently pushing through an unprecedented rate, of economically significant rules on small businesses.”
“Since day one, this Administration has unleashed a regulatory onslaught on Main Street,” said Chairman Williams. “We’ve seen $1.6 trillion in regulations since President Biden took office. Every dollar spent on compliance is one less that they will be able to spend on expanding their operations. Today’s hearing highlighted potential solutions as the Committee continues to look for legislative solutions to protect our nations job creators.”
---
Watch the full hearing here.
Below are some key excerpts from today’s hearing:
Chairman Williams: “Over the last 15 months, the committee has been sending information request to agencies on rules they put out and we have often found that if an economic analysis took place, it would often fail to take into account the cumulative effect of their regulations coming out of Washington. So, Mr. Ray, given your past experience working on regulations in the Trump Administration, how would you recommend that we ensure agencies don't only view their actions in a vacuum and turn a blind eye to the other regulations harming small businesses?” Mr. Ray: “Mr. Chairman, thank you for the question. I think absolutely essential to remedying this problem, which you highlight and which is indeed a very grave problem, would be some sort of regulatory budget. The budget should apply both at the level of individual agencies and at the level of the federal government, as a whole. Any given family who's trying to make ends meet has to think about all their expenses put together. Only federal agencies are able to think just about the cost that they are imposing, in particular rulemakings or in the best case scenario, in a suite of rulemakings. Federal agencies and the federal regulatory system as a whole should have to play by the same rules that American families do when they engage in a holistic budgeting exercise.”
Rep. Stauber: “I know that small businesses under the Biden Administration, the small businesses are struggling. In this letter that I put forward, for small businesses with 50 or fewer employees in the, the cost, in the manufacturing sector, small manufacturers incur costs of 34,671 per employee per year. $34,671 per employee per year. You gotta be kidding me. This is the regulations that are put on our manufacturing and small business. Nobody's going to convince me that that's good for that small business. Mr. Goldbeck, how does the economic impact of regulations issued by the Biden Administration compare to previous Administrations?” Mr. Goldbeck: “Congressman, to date, the total costs accumulated by agencies under the current administration is more than five times that of the Obama Administration's total at this point in time.”
Rep. Bean: “Mr. Smith, you represent thousands of businesses, with NFIB. I've asked multiple businesses that have sat in the same chairs that you have sat ‘how is the regulatory environment right now on a scale from 1 to 10?’ One being, you know what? It's just the cost of doing business. Ten is just, we've never seen it like this before. What would you rate the current environment?” Mr. Smith: “Thank you, Congressman. I would rate it as a ten. And in fact, there are recent numbers that April had the most significant, economically significant rules dating all the way back to the 1980s in that month alone, and that this Administration is currently pushing through an unprecedented rate, of economically significant rules on small businesses.”
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