Regulatory Accountability Act Gains NFIB Support

“We feel your pain,” was the National Federation of Independent Business’s (NFIB) response to the administration’s statement on the Regulatory Accountability Act, a bill that would, according to the White House, “impose unprecedented and unnecessary procedural requirements on agencies that would prevent them from efficiently performing their statutory responsibilities.” It also would create needless regulatory and legal uncertainty.

The Act is a top priority for American small businesses because it would require regulatory agencies to choose the least costly option for them to comply with federal rules that often come with an enormous price tag.

According to a White House statement, “This bill would make the regulatory process more expensive, less flexible, and more burdensome — dramatically increasing the cost of regulation for the American taxpayer and working class families.”

Making things a little harder for the regulators by slowing them down and forcing them to impose the least painful options is how the system should work, was the NFIB’s view in its response.

“They’ve got it exactly upside down… Private sector businesses and taxpayers don’t exist to accommodate the government’s needs,” said NFIB President and CEO Dan Danner. “The government exists to accommodate their needs, and what they need now are some controls on the bureaucracy’s immense power to disrupt business, increase consumer costs, impose fines and limit economic growth.” S