White House claims billions in savings from eased regulations

Shelanski will tout more than $5 billion in savings over the next five years from new Department of Health and Human Services rules removing unnecessary regulatory and reporting requirements on hospitals and other healthcare providers.

The Labor Department will realize another $2.5 billion in net benefits in the same time period from new regulations designed improve hazard warnings for workers.

New Defense Department policies to speed up payments to contractors, meanwhile, has benefited as many as 60,000 small businesses, according to the testimony.

The government-wide regulatory “look-back” stems from a series of executive orders President Obama has signed, dating back to January of 2011.

Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, continue to criticize the administration over the rate of new regulations, describing federal agencies as overzealous in their pursuit of additional rules.

“Congress gives regulators an inch and they take a mile,” Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said in prepared remarks. “The result is poorly thought out, unnecessary regulations that unduly burden small businesses.”