Orrin Hatch: “while I have been interested in the comments between the two leaders, I have to agree with the Republican leader that…”

“while I have been interested in the comments between the two leaders, I have to agree with the Republican leader that this is an exercise, in many ways, in futility because the bill brought forth by the other side has very little chance of passing through both Houses of Congress because it is a partisan bill. Let me just mention a few things this morning. While growth remains sluggish in our economy, unemployment high, and job growth insufficient to drive unemployment lower, the number of pages in the Federal Register is at an all-time high. Pages devoted to final rules rose by 20 percent between 2009 and 2010, and proposed rules have also risen by close to 20 percent to 2,439 in 2010. Of the 4,257 regulatory actions already in the pipeline, 219 are considered economically significant, meaning they are estimated to impose a cost of $100 million or more on the economy. By comparison, that is 28 more than this time last year and 47 percent more than in 2009. In total, the Obama administration has imposed 75 new major regulations costing over $38 billion annually. And we wonder why our country is in such trouble.…”