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| Rep. Adrian Smith |
The time and money spent keeping up with federal rules is a major burden on our economy. American families and small businesses struggle to comply with the growing number of federal regulations even when they do not realize it. The true cost of regulatory compliance is often hidden in the price of products, energy, and even health care.
A new report by Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise Institute shines a light on the growing regulatory state and its true cost to our economy. At the end of 2012, the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit an all-time high of 174,545. Last year alone, the government enacted 1,172 new regulations; 16 percent more than were completed in 2011.
These new rules are written and implemented by executive branch agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) presumably with good intentions. They may mean well, but the agencies often do not consider the impact of new rules on jobs and growth. The result is a massive burden on the economy.
Crews found the total costs for Americans to comply with federal regulations reached $1.8 trillion in 2012 – more than the government collects annually in corporate and individual taxes. Regulatory costs amount to more than $14,000 per family per year.
According to Crews, about a sixth of the regulatory cost is attributable to compliance with our overly complex tax code. I am working with the Ways and Means Committee to simplify the tax code for all Americans through comprehensive tax reform, which would reduce the cost of compliance and create numerous other economic benefits. In addition to tax reform, we must also take on serious regulatory reform.
Congress should work to ease specific regulatory burdens already impacting sectors of our economy such as health care. This week, I introduced the Administrative Relief and Accurate Medicare Payments Act to help ease the oversight requirements on hospitals and doctors on Medicare claims. The bill would allow hospitals and doctors to focus more resources providing quality health care for their patients at competitive prices, and spend less time dealing with the Medicare bureaucracy.
In order to address regulations more comprehensively, the House of Representatives is considering the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor. This commonsense legislation would require the regulations with the greatest cost to our economy to be approved by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President before taking effect on hard-working American families and businesses. Last year, 57 regulations were implemented with an annual economic cost of more than $100 million each.
These are just a few of the ideas the House is considering to reform the regulatory code and process. As our economy struggles to recover, now would be a great time to stop the growth of the regulatory state and to lessen this massive, hidden burden on American families and businesses.
A new report by Wayne Crews at the Competitive Enterprise Institute shines a light on the growing regulatory state and its true cost to our economy. At the end of 2012, the number of pages in the Code of Federal Regulations hit an all-time high of 174,545. Last year alone, the government enacted 1,172 new regulations; 16 percent more than were completed in 2011.
These new rules are written and implemented by executive branch agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) presumably with good intentions. They may mean well, but the agencies often do not consider the impact of new rules on jobs and growth. The result is a massive burden on the economy.
Crews found the total costs for Americans to comply with federal regulations reached $1.8 trillion in 2012 – more than the government collects annually in corporate and individual taxes. Regulatory costs amount to more than $14,000 per family per year.
According to Crews, about a sixth of the regulatory cost is attributable to compliance with our overly complex tax code. I am working with the Ways and Means Committee to simplify the tax code for all Americans through comprehensive tax reform, which would reduce the cost of compliance and create numerous other economic benefits. In addition to tax reform, we must also take on serious regulatory reform.
Congress should work to ease specific regulatory burdens already impacting sectors of our economy such as health care. This week, I introduced the Administrative Relief and Accurate Medicare Payments Act to help ease the oversight requirements on hospitals and doctors on Medicare claims. The bill would allow hospitals and doctors to focus more resources providing quality health care for their patients at competitive prices, and spend less time dealing with the Medicare bureaucracy.
In order to address regulations more comprehensively, the House of Representatives is considering the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, of which I am a proud cosponsor. This commonsense legislation would require the regulations with the greatest cost to our economy to be approved by both chambers of Congress and signed by the President before taking effect on hard-working American families and businesses. Last year, 57 regulations were implemented with an annual economic cost of more than $100 million each.
These are just a few of the ideas the House is considering to reform the regulatory code and process. As our economy struggles to recover, now would be a great time to stop the growth of the regulatory state and to lessen this massive, hidden burden on American families and businesses.
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