Renee L. Ellmers: “I thank my colleague from California. Your perspective alone, as a small business owner and as a farmer, really gives us…”

“I thank my colleague from California. Your perspective alone, as a small business owner and as a farmer, really gives us that strong idea of what we're really facing. Many of us here in Washington now are and have been small business owners, and we understand the burdens that we are having to undertake and that the rest of America is dealing with. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to just talk a little bit about some statistics and poll data. According to a recent Gallup Poll, small business owners in the United States say complying with government regulations is the most important problem facing them today, followed by consumer confidence in the economy and a lack of consumer demand. Small business firms bear a regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee just to deal with the regulations, which is 36 percent higher, there again, than larger businesses. Small business is what drives our economy, yet it is what is continuously targeted, and we must act on it with the bill that we will pass tomorrow, H.R. 527. I spoke a little bit about the excessive costs of dealing with environmental regulations. According to the Small Business Administration, regulations cost the American economy $1.7 trillion annually, which is an enormous cost. You can see by our unemployment rate why we continue in this. Until we are able to cut the excessive, overbearing regulations that are facing our businesses, we will not turn this economy around. That is why we must act now.…”