CONGRESS: Republicans pan Obama administration's regulatory relief plan

August 29, 2011

The Press Enterprise

Ben Goad

 Area House Republicans are less than thrilled by an Obama administration initiative to cut bureaucratic red tape across the federal government.

Last week, the White House rolled out more than 500 individual measures to change or cut current burdensome or contradictory federal regulations. The regulatory relief package spans many sectors of government and includes making it easier for doctors to practice at multiple hospitals, speeding up payments to Defense contractors and simplifying the nation's visa process.

 The plan, designed to save businesses $10 billion over the next five years, comes amid mounting criticism from Republicans who say the federal rules and regulations are suffocating the struggling private sector. Cass Sunstein, who heads the White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, said the administration is listening.

"It is true that many people are focusing on the cost of new regulations, and we're very much among those people," Sunstein said.

 Rep. Darrell Issa , who has launched his own investigation of government regulations, said the White House initiative shows that the GOP pressure is working.

 "But the President must join House Republicans in doing more to address these job killers, especially those proposed regulations that jeopardize economic growth, in an effort to restart the economy and create jobs," said Issa, R-Vista, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "House Republicans will certainly continue our efforts to address government actions that are inhibiting job creation."

 Sunstein stressed that the plan unveiled last week is just the beginning of a new regulatory culture in which the government pays closer attention to the burdens regulations place on businesses across the country. But Republicans point to what they describe as an onslaught of new regulations promulgated under the Obama administration.

 "This year, almost 700 rules have been proposed/enacted, resulting in 50k pages of regs, and creating a $60.9 billion burden," Rep. Mary Bono Mack , R-Palm Springs, said via her tweet account on Tuesday, the day Sunstein announced the new initiative.

Her remarks were echoed by other Congressional Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who describe the proposed cuts as a drop in the bucket of what is needed.

"If $10 billion is a drop in the bucket, I'd like to have access to that bucket," Sunstein countered.

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