Ernst Touts Trump Efforts to Make America Affordable Again
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) delivered opening remarks during a hearing highlighting how the Trump administration’s unprecedented $907 billion regulatory rollback is unleashing Main Street to keep more money in hardworking Americans’ pockets and make life more affordable.
Ernst urged Congress to continue undoing the damage of the Biden years and reduce the regulatory burden by passing her Prove It Act and Red Tape Act to give small businesses a voice in the Washington rulemaking process and prevent deep state bureaucrats from hiding the true cost of the bloated bureaucracy.
Watch Ernst’s remarks here.
Ernst’s full remarks:
“As I travel from river to river across Iowa, I hear from small businesses about the consistent thorn in their side: overregulation.
“In fact, when asked about federal regulations, Iowans consistently tell me to bring back a simple message to Washington bureaucrats: stay out of our way.
“For a small business, regulatory compliance is more than just a headache. It’s wasted time and money they’d rather put back into their businesses.
“It forces folks to jump through hoops designed by people who have never run payroll or had to scramble to keep their doors open and their lights on.
“In Iowa, most entrepreneurs do not have extra folks on hand dedicated to compliance or a legal team to comply with regulations designed for large corporations.
“Not to mention the endless time and money to fight Uncle Sam if they miss one small paperwork requirement.
“Unfortunately, during the previous administration, federal bureaucrats ignored the resources and bandwidth of our small businesses.
“During the Biden administration, a record-shattering 107,262 pages of rules were added to the Federal Register, which cost an estimated $1.8 trillion, with a T, trillion dollars, and added 256 million hours of paperwork on to the plates of small business owners.
“During President Biden’s last year in office alone, his administration issued over 3,000 final rules.
“The regulatory costs of the Biden administration’s reckless rulemaking were more than 15 times higher than President Trump’s first term, and over three times higher that of Barack Obama’s entire presidency.
“The massive mountain of paperwork hours due to bureaucratic red tape cuts into small businesses’ bottom lines, it slows job creation, and balloons compliance costs.
“It’s simply bad for business.
“Since January, the Trump administration has published $702 billion in total regulatory cost savings and cut 72.1 million hours of paperwork.
“Altogether with additional deregulatory efforts, these actions so far could save American taxpayers up to $907 billion dollars.
“And, I know these savings will only grow as small businesses recover from the previous administration’s regulatory onslaught.
“The Trump administration is hard at work, making sure agencies delete, revoke, and rescind the harmful regulations of previous administrations.
“I’ve been pleased to work with Administrator Zeldin to help bring commonsense back to the Environmental Protection Agency where the Trump EPA has been especially busy.
“Just this week, the EPA proposed an updated Waters of the United States – or WOTUS – rule to clarify what is covered by WOTUS.
“This proposed rule follows my CLEAR Waters Act which would codify that groundwater and waste treatment systems are not ‘navigable waters’ and end this government overreach for our farmers, landowners, and small businesses.
“I am also glad that the EPA is working to overturn the agency’s harmful Obama-era ‘endangerment finding,’ which allowed far-left administrations to pave the way for EV mandates and Green New Deal policies.
“The Trump EPA estimates that the ‘endangerment finding’ has been used to justify over $1 trillion in hidden taxes on small businesses and American families.
“Revoking that finding would save Americans $54 billion annually.
“Today, our Committee will hear from Chief Counsel for Advocacy Dr. Casey Mulligan.
“In any administration, the Office of Advocacy is a valuable counterweight to the sprawling bureaucratic mess that regulations create for small businesses.
“Dr. Mulligan, thank you for your steadfast commitment to identifying regulatory pain points that make it difficult for small businesses to grow.
“It has been a personal mission of mine to end the red-tape nightmare that has tormented our small business owners, and earlier this year, I re-introduced the Prove It Act.
“My bill requires agencies to consider both the direct and indirect costs for small businesses before finalizing regulations, it requires Advocacy to formally review federal agencies’ certification of rules and prove that the federal government is fully compliant with existing law, and it gives small businesses a voice in the rulemaking process to shift the balance of power away from the administrative state and back onto Main Street.
“I also introduced the Red Tape Act earlier this year to expose the true price tag of Washington’s red tape and end Biden’s shady Circular A-4 scheme used to conceal the cost of federal regulations.
“Just a few weeks later, President Trump issued Executive Order 14192, which mirrored my legislation and formally rescinded the Biden-era guidance.
“This sort of commonsense legislation, alongside the deregulatory action of this administration, will truly lead to a golden age for America’s small business.
“I look forward to hearing from Dr. Mulligan today about further ways we can work together to reduce regulatory burdens on small firms.”
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