Regulations that protect consumers, borrowers and the environment improve the quality of life for all Americans. They ensure we have safe food to eat, access to credit at fair rates and clean air to breathe. We grant the government the ability to make these regulations, but in doing so, we entrust the government to make sensible regulations that do not encroach on our freedoms. Unfortunately—at our current moment in history—the excessive regulations coming from President Obama’s Administration are not only encroaching on our freedoms, but they are preventing any economic recovery from taking hold.

This Administration, like no other in recent years, has abused the regulatory process. Last year, the Obama Administration finalized 3,573 new rules—the costs of these new regulations amounted to $1.75 trillion—nearly 12% of GDP.

And it is only getting worse in 2011. In just two months during the summer of 2011, the Obama Administration proposed 1225 regulations at a cost of $17.7 billion. And these aren’t minor inconveniences we are talking about either. President Obama’s regulatory agenda for 2011 contains 219 proposed rules that have an economic cost of over $1 billion each.

The constant flow of rules from Pennsylvania Avenue is causing gridlock on Main Street’s attempts to get our economy moving again.

A good example is the EPA’s very expensive and strict regulations to cover industrial and commercial boilers issued this past March. These rules hit the timber industry hard, an industry that is a substantial part of southern Arkansas’s economy. The American and Forest Paper Association released a study this week shows these rules could cost 20,500 jobs or 18 percent of the pulp and paper industry’s workforce. They also put 36 mills in risk of closure. In some cases, these are often the best jobs in town.

Regulations stifle economic growth in the form of substantial compliance costs on our nation’s job creators. Overbearing, excessive regulations take farmers away from their tending to their crops, slow the lines at the manufacturing plants and sap resources that could otherwise be put toward hiring more Americans. Someone who normally would be doing work that creates revenue is taken off task for a considerable amount of time to fill out paperwork. These days, the only new employees a business is looking to hire are compliance officers—not employees that can help expand and grow their operation.

Even many rules that have merely been proposed, not even enacted, are hurting our economy. Businesses, both big and small, need to plan ahead to succeed. With so many proposed rules floating around, it is nearly impossible for a business owner to plan with any degree of confidence. This uncertainty is as large of an obstacle to our recovery as the regulations they have implemented. If business owners don’t know what their tax rates and energy, healthcare and compliance costs are going to be, then the last thing they are going to do is hire a bunch of people.

Let’s restore commonsense to the regulatory process and correct the mistakes caused by the Obama Administration’s heavy-handed and harsh overregulation. We can achieve that goal by passing these bills into law:

• The Regulations from the Executive In Need of Scrutiny Act (REINS Act): This bill would require that every new major rule proposed by federal agencies be approved via joint resolution passed by both bodies in Congress and signed by the President before they can take effect. A “major rule” is any rule that the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) finds may result in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; a major increase in costs or prices for consumers; or significant adverse effects on the economy.
• Regulatory Time-Out Act: This bill proposes a one-year moratorium on new regulations that would have an adverse impact. This moratorium would apply to major rules costing more than $100 million per year, and other rules that have been considered 'significant' under Executive orders going back to President Clinton and followed by President George W. Bush and President Obama.
• The Regulation Moratorium and Jobs Preservation Act of 2011: This act prohibits agencies, including independent regulatory agencies, from taking any significant regulatory action until the unemployment rate falls below 7.8 percent. “Significant regulatory action” is defined as any rule or guidance that may have an annual effect on the economy of $100,000,000 or more -OR- adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, small entities, or State, local, or tribal governments or communities.
• Defending America's Affordable Energy and Jobs Act: Prohibits the President from regulating greenhouse gases for the purpose of addressing climate change without specific Congressional authorization.
• Small Business Paperwork Mandate Elimination Act: This bill would repeal the needlessly burdensome 1099 tax paperwork mandate embedded in President Obama’s health care law which forced companies to report more transactions to the IRS. A similar repeal passed Congress and was signed into law in April 2011.
• The EPA Regulatory Relief Act of 2011: This bill gives federal regulators additional time and guidelines to develop achievable rules governing emissions from industrial, commercial and institutional boilers and incinerators.
• Regulatory Responsibility for our Economy Act of 2011: This bill would strengthen and codify the president’s Executive Order from January 18, 2011, to ensure the president’s order is carried out to review, modify, streamline, expand, or repeal those significant regulatory actions that are duplicative, unnecessary, burdensome, or would have significant economic impacts on Americans.