Washington, DC– Representative Reid Ribble (R-WI), a former 30-year small business owner and a member of the House Budget Committee, commented on today’s uptick in the nation’s unemployment rate to 9.2 percent.

“The latest information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is just further evidence that Washington needs to change its direction. With only 18,000 new jobs created last month, it reaffirms the need that Washington must focus on crafting pro-growth economic policies that put Americans back to work. Presently we have a regulatory environment that is openly hostile to job creation. This is no way to get the economy moving.”

Recently, a study published by the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies found that regulations issued by the government directly affects the number of private sector jobs created. The study showed that if regulatory budgets were reduced by only five percent, it would result in $75 billion in private sector growth and an increase in 1.2 million new jobs annually.

“At a time when unemployment is high and jobs are scarce, government regulators are enacting rules that would destroy more jobs,” said Ribble. “We cannot have it both ways. Washington cannot continue to over-regulate private companies and then expect those same companies to create new jobs. Washington’s regulatory attacks on job creators must stop. Congress must begin to rein in these agencies who continue to over-regulate and kill private-sector job growth.”

Congressman Ribble has been actively engaged in rolling back overreaching regulations on businesses. Ribble recently introduced a bill (H.R. 1281) that creates a regulatory cooling-off period so businesses have certainty to begin creating jobs and moving our economy forward  He is also a co-sponsor of the REINS Act (H.R. 10); this legislation requires any regulation with an economic impact of more than $100 million to first receive Congressional approval. Further, Ribble has worked with many of his House colleagues, including co-sponsoring H.R. 2250, to prevent implementation of the job-destroying EPA BoilerMACT regulation that would reduce U.S. employment by 1.4 million jobs.

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