John Mica: “That is just the cost of regulation imposed, additional regulation. When my family started the business 70 or 80 years…”

“That is just the cost of regulation imposed, additional regulation. When my family started the business 70 or 80 years ago, we took this laundry and dry cleaning and it was done in a very simple fashion. This is the cost of compliance today just to start up, not the cost of staying in business. Mr. Speaker, in 1991, the National Federation of Independent Businesses determined that opening a new dry cleaner requires filling out and complying with almost 100 forms and manuals. We say yesterday in this press conference the number of manuals that are required and regulations that these individuals must comply with. Really one of the most interesting things I have heard is a plea from a small dry cleaner, a gentleman by the name of Bill O'Hannon who appeared at our press conference, and he has been in the business in Woodbridge, VA, for the past 20 years. This gentleman described how he is trying to comply with hazardous waste disposal which is now costing him over $4,000 a year in government regulations and compliance. He talked about Superfund. He said that under this law, the Federal Government can seize anything he owns, even though he has never committed a crime or violated a law, and he said that this is something that must be wrong with our society when even drug dealers have more rights than dry cleaners. That will always stick in my mind.…”