President Barack Obama showed Tuesday that he wants to take the lead on regulatory reform, an issue that Republicans were hoping to dominate over the next two years.
In his first major salvo on the issue since the GOP captured the majority in the House, Obama came out strong with an executive order, two memorandums and a Wall Street Journal opinion piece mapping out his strategy for the months ahead. The executive order requires federal agencies to review health and safety regulations to determine if they are too burdensome on businesses, in which case they may be changed or repealed. The memorandums direct enforcement agencies to make compliance information easily accessible online and to look for ways to reduce regulatory burdens on small businesses. A key change is that agencies will now be required to give written justification when they do not show flexibility in their proposed regulations.
“We are ... making it our mission to root out regulations that conflict, that are not worth the cost, or that are just plain dumb,” Obama wrote in the Wall Street Journal opinion piece timed with the unveiling of his strategy.
The president’s move may have blindsided Republicans, who have been gearing up for a debate on the issue that frames their party as pro-business and pro-jobs in the lead-up to the 2012 elections.
“I don’t think the GOP saw this coming,” a senior Democratic aide said.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor called Obama’s strategy “interestingly” similar to a job-growth plan the Virginia Republican proposed last year.
“One of the chief planks of my plan was to address the out-of-control and costly bureaucratic rules and regulations that bog down businesses small and large,” Cantor said. “Though he and his administration didn’t embrace it last year, we have noticed pieces of the plan being incorporated by the president including ... rolling back barriers to job creation found in the regulatory system.”
Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, who is expected to take an aggressive stance in his investigations into government waste, said he welcomed Obama’s interest in the issue.
“I applaud President Obama for joining what must be an effort that stretches beyond ideological entrenchments to identify the regulatory impediments that have prevented real and sustained job growth in the private sector,” the California Republican said.
Senior GOP aides reluctantly endorsed the executive order but questioned Obama’s credibility on the issue given the sweeping regulations ushered in under health care reform and financial reform.
“It’s hard to see how an administration that celebrates its record of expansive, often intrusive regulations will be capable of calming small businesses who feel besieged by Washington’s expanding reach, especially when the same regulators who have written rules that stifle economic growth are now being asked to identify and eliminate them,” a top House Republican aide said.
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
Roll Call has launched a new feature, Hill Navigator, to advise congressional staffers and would-be staffers on how to manage workplace issues on Capitol Hill. Please send us your questions — anything from office etiquette, to handling awkward moments, to what happens when the work life gets too personal. Submissions will be treated anonymously.
