On the recordJune 9, 2011
Madam President, I rise in support of the amendment that has been proposed by my colleagues from Maine and Oklahoma, Senators Snowe and Coburn, the Freedom from Restrictive Excessive Executive Demands and Onerous Mandates Act of 2011. This is a very commonsensical piece of legislation. It is something that certainly responds to a concern I hear from small businesses all across this country about the need for relief from burdensome, one-size-fits-all Federal regulations. We hear a lot of discussion--in the Senate and around this town and around the country, for that matter, because that is where it truly matters--about creating jobs. Yet for all the rhetoric about job creation, it seems there is very little that is actually being done with regard to the substance of putting the right kind of policies in place that will make it cheaper and easier for small businesses to create jobs. It seems as if everything we do makes it harder, more difficult, and more expensive for our small businesses to create jobs. As the Senator from Maine very correctly pointed out, 70 percent of the jobs in our economy are created by small businesses. I think there are a whole range of issues that impact small businesses in this country and their ability to create jobs. My colleague from Ohio just talked about trade.…





