Capitol Hill

On Oct. 21, NRCA members attending the association's Fall Committee Meetings and Legislative Conference will descend on Washington, D.C., to voice their views and concerns regarding government policy directly to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. This exercise is critically important to advancing NRCA's message on key issues.

One priority for NRCA members during the legislative conference will be to demonstrate support for legislation designed to provide relief from burdensome government regulations. NRCA continues to hear concerns from numerous federal agencies. Moreover, it is expected the Obama administration will continue with an aggressive regulatory agenda until the president's term ends in January 2017.

A time for change

Clearly, the effect of regulations on the economy is significant and growing. In 2011, the Small Business Administration estimated the total cost of compliance with all federal regulations nationally was $1.75 trillion. The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a market-oriented research institute, estimated the nationwide cost of regulations at $1.88 trillion in 2014.

Given this growing problem, NRCA considers enactment of regulatory reform legislation a key objective. There are several legislative approaches to providing relief from burdensome regulations now being considered by Congress. But the most important and primary focus of NRCA's Legislative Conference is the Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA).

The RAA

The RAA is designed to reform the process under which federal agencies develop regulations to minimize adverse effects on employers and the economy. This can be done by implementing procedures that provide more opportunities for input from affected industries and other reforms during the development process.

The RAA contains reforms that will ultimately lower burdensome costs and improve the effectiveness of regulations. It will do so by overhauling the Administrative Procedures Act, the federal law that governs the process by which agencies write regulations, which has not been updated in nearly 70 years. In doing so, it will require federal agencies to choose the lowest-cost rulemaking alternative that meets statutory objectives, improve agency fact-finding processes and economic analysis, increase opportunities for public input before regulations are proposed, and fortify judicial review standards for new regulations.

NRCA believes these reforms will enhance the ability of stakeholders to influence the regulatory process. For example, had such reforms been in place in 2010, NRCA would have had greater opportunity for input into the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) fall-protection regulation changes. At that time, NRCA had limited opportunity to provide input to OSHA officials, and the agency ignored NRCA's member concerns when making its regulatory changes. NRCA challenged OSHA's action by filing a lawsuit, but the court ruled OSHA had acted within its discretion under current law.

Had the reforms in the RAA been in place in 2010, OSHA would have had to issue its fall-protection directive through the full rule-making process, providing greater transparency and giving NRCA and other stakeholders more opportunity for input. Furthermore, RAA reforms would have given NRCA a greater chance of prevailing when it challenged OSHA's policy in court.

The House of Representatives approved the RAA (H.R. 185) in early 2015 with significant bipartisan support. In early August, similar legislation (S. 2006) was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Angus King (I-Maine), an independent senator who caucuses with Democrats. This indicates lawmakers in both political parties recognize regulatory reform is an important issue that must be addressed.

The outlook for consideration and eventual approval of S. 2006 is more favorable under Republican control of the Senate. Sources on Capitol Hill indicate they believe it is possible S. 2006 could achieve the support of at least 60 senators needed to approve the bill, and NRCA is working to make that happen.

Carrying the message

NRCA understands members' concerns regarding excessive government regulations, and members will carry this message to Capitol Hill this month. NRCA members who are unable to attend the legislative conference should contact their senators in support of S. 2006. To learn more about this issue and for instructions about how to contact your senators, go to www.nrca.net/0815-Action-Alert.

Duane L. Musser is NRCA's vice president of government relations.