Hearing of the House Small Business Committee - Regulatory Overreach: Is EPA Meeting Its Small Business Obligations?
Hearing
Good afternoon. The hearing will come to order.
The mission of the EPA is to protect human health and the environment. Lately, the EPA has ventured well beyond its mission. Its recent rulemakings are an unprecedented power grab that are infringing on the rights of both the individual and small business owner. The results on our economy are potentially devastating and the EPA needs to revaluate its decisions.
These rules have real and direct consequences for small businesses, and the American public deserves to have a complete picture of the costs and benefits of these rules. Unfortunately, EPA seems focused on telling one-side of the story and ignoring the other.
What the EPA is not revealing is how its rules will affect small businesses. The EPA is required to tell that story by the Regulatory Flexibility Act or RFA. The RFA requires EPA to go through the common-sense process of assessing how its rules will affect small entities and whether there are less burdensome ways to meet their objectives.
Instead of complying with the law and getting input from small businesses through formal panels and analyzing small business impacts, the EPA has ducked these rulemaking requirements.
Unfortunately, small businesses won't be able to duck the power plant regulations or the "Waters of the United States" rule once they are finalized. They'll be required to comply with the rules, pay the costs and face the consequences.
While all small businesses want clean air and clean water, they also want rules that are clear and rational. Small businesses want to know what they'll be required to do, what costs to expect and how their operations will be affected. And last but not least, small businesses want to be treated fairly in the rulemaking process.
I hope this hearing is a wakeup call for the EPA. Avoiding its obligations under the RFA is not acceptable.
For the past year, the Committee has been working to get the EPA to testify on this topic. I want to thank Deputy Administrator Perciasepe for joining us today and look forward to discussing the EPA's compliance with the RFA.
I now yield to the Ranking Member for her opening statement.
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