Washington Policy Center: Small Business Coalition Hits the Road to Highlight Need for Regulatory Reform

USE Logo2
Tomorrow NFIB and Senator John Braun will hold a “Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations” event at Braun’s company, Braun Northwest, a manufacturer of specialty emergency vehicles in Chehalis.  As the country gears up to celebrate the achievements of American workers on Labor Day, the event will highlight the regulatory obstacles businesses face today in creating jobs.Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations is a NFIB-led coalition of small business owners, farmers, manufacturers and associations from around the country committed reducing the regulatory burden on job-creators.Federal regulations alone average 74 new rules a day, according to regulations.gov, which has posted more than 6,669 changes in the last three months alone.   In Washington State, over the course of two years (2011-2012), during which there was a moratorium on “non-critical” agency rulemaking, state agencies imposed a total of 805 new, permanent rules and 909 temporary, emergency rules that together fill 15,754 pages.The Washington Economic Development Commission (WEDC) recently identified reforming our state’s regulatory policies as one of the top recommendations to accelerating job growth.

In a strongly worded condemnation of our state’s regulatory climate, the WEDC, comprised of stakeholders representing business and labor, agency directors and lawmakers from both parties, says, “Washington’s overly burdensome regulatory system must be addressed as a top economic development priority.”

Acknowledging that “regulatory processes impose costs-of-doing business, and significantly influence investment behavior, location decisions, start-up activity, expansions and hiring” and referencing the Auditor’s report of the state’s regulatory short-comings, the WEDC includes a comprehensive list of specific recommendations to revamp how the state regulates businesses.

Sen. Braun will discuss some of the difficulties he has in running his business under our state’s regulatory burden, and join NFIB and other officials for a discussion on ways to alleviate the problem.

WPC has a series of long-standing policy recommendations to reduce the regulatory burden on business.  WPC recommendations include requiring the governor to review and approve new agency regulations, reviewing regulations to identify those that are outdated, duplicate or contradict each other, including a regulatory sunset provision for new regulations and submitting all existing regulations to review by the legislature every five years.

 

https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/blog/post/small-business-coalition-hits-road-highlight-need-regulatory-reform