Manufacturers press Congress for regulatory overhaul

Manufacturers are calling on lawmakers to fix a “poorly designed” and “unnecessarily complex” regulatory system that holds them back from growing and creating jobs.

A letter from the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) attacks the “one-size-fits-all” approach to regulation the group says harms small businesses’ ability to compete.

{mosads}”Congress must permanently reform our regulatory system to protect our country, while being flexible, agile, innovative and imposing only the burdens that are necessary,” NAM president and CEO Jay Timmons wrote to Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and the top Democrat on the panel, Sen. Tom Carper (Del.).

The manufacturers trade group pointed to figures from the Government Accountability Office that show the federal government has issued 488 major regulations with an annual compliance cost of at least $100 million over the last six years.

But Timmons said the blame does not rest solely with the Obama administration.

“Congress is at the heart of the regulatory process and produces the authority for the agencies to issue rules, so it is also responsible, along with the executive branch, for the current state of our regulatory system,” Timmons wrote.

The group attacked several regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the National Labor Relations Board in the letter.

The EPA’s proposed ozone regulation, which manufacturers claim is the most expensive regulation of all time, could take $140 billion toll on the economy annually and eliminate 1.4 million jobs per year, NAM says.

Plus, the EPA’s attempt to regulate more bodies of water is a “regulatory nightmare” for manufacturers, Timmons said.

The agency’s proposed emissions limits at existing power plants could cost businesses more than $300 billion to comply with and lead to “double-digit electricity price increases.”

Meanwhile, the NLRB’s rule speeding up union elections will leave business owners “scrambling to hastily navigate and understand the complex labor processes,” Timmons wrote.