Don Nickles: “Mr. President, this amendment is germane and is about competitiveness. I think when we talk about competitiveness, we…”

“Mr. President, this amendment is germane and is about competitiveness. I think when we talk about competitiveness, we must not miss the point and the fact that the Government can do a great deal of harm through overzealous regulation. One way to alleviate this problem is to give policymakers the tools necessary to evaluate the proposed policy on its economic and regulatory impact. That is why, today, Senator Reid and myself are offering the Economic Employment Act as an amendment to Senate bill 4, the National Competitiveness Act. The economic and employment impact statement was reintroduced at the beginning of Congress as a freestanding legislation and was offered as an amendment to the EPA Cabinet bill last year, and it received 48 votes. We have all been here before, and we know the escalating cost of regulation is a serious problem. The administration has acknowledged that it is a problem. The national performance review estimated private sector compliance costs to be at least $430 billion per year--9 percent of our gross domestic product.”