James M. Talent: “Do we want to stand with and for the small businesspeople of this country against one of the things that irks them and…”

“Do we want to stand with and for the small businesspeople of this country against one of the things that irks them and demoralizes them and costs them the most, which is useless kind of government paperwork and arbitrary kinds of fines? Or do we want to stand with the government, with big government, with the regulatory state that believes that unless these people are minutely watched in all they do, they are going to go out and do all of these terrible things? It is a question of where we put our faith. Mr. Chairman, all the bill says is we do not want agencies to fine small businesspeople for paperwork violations that do not matter to anything, that do not matter to the interest of the agency or public health and safety.”