On the recordDecember 7, 2011
The mere phrase ``the regulators'' brings fear and trepidation down into the hearts and souls of small business owners throughout the fruited plain. Mr. Chairman, the Code of Federal Regulations is 150,000-pages long. That's a lot of pages. Those are a lot of regulations. According to the Small Business Administration, the annual cost of all Federal regulations in this country was almost $2 trillion in 2008. Now, do we really need all of those expensive regulations? Good thing the Federal regulators weren't around when the Ten Commandments were written--no telling what additional regulations they would have added to those simple 10 phrases. It is common sense that Congress should have a say on a regulation that would have a drastic, expensive effect on our economy. So why do my friends on the other side, who are such big friends of regulations, not want the regulators to be regulated? I don't understand that. Remember, we are elected. The regulators are not. Congress is the branch of government that is closely connected to the people, and if Congress approves unnecessary and burdensome regulations, we have to be accountable to our voters in our districts for that. Who do the regulators answer to? No one. They only answer to their supervisors, who are also regulators. When the regulators go to work every day, like most people go to work, their work assignments are a little different.…
