Overly complex and costly federal regulations are holding America’s economy back, throttling business investment and slowing job growth. In fact, more than half of Business Roundtable CEOs say that pending regulations will negatively affect their hiring and capital spending in the short term. In the long term, almost two-thirds believe they will be negatively affected.
Business Roundtable supports legislative and administrative actions that would make the federal regulatory process more transparent and open to public engagement, improve the quality of information used in the rulemaking process, require more objective cost-benefit analysis, extend that requirement to so-called independent agencies, and modernize the federal permitting process.
Making the federal regulatory system more efficient and effective will reduce the economic burden of regulation while protecting health, safety and environmental quality.
Introduction
Business Roundtable commends EPA for committing to improve its process through regulation and seeking public comment through this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM). Business Roundtable shares the agency’s desire to develop more accurate estimates of costs and benefits while clearly and transparently recognizing the limitations, uncertainty and imprecision associated with such analysis.
Business Roundtable today issued the following statement on the Trump Administration's actions to expedite review and permitting for major U.S. infrastructure projects.
On November 20, Business Roundtable filed comments in response to EPA’s request for comments regarding whether and to the extent to which any of the best practices recommended in the annual report of the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council established by FAST-41 should be applicable to states that have accepted delegated authority to administer permit programs in lieu of EPA.
Business Roundtable supports the Proposed Rule published by the Environmental Protection Agency (the Agency) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on July 27, 20171 to rescind the 2015 Clean Water Rule (the 2015 Rule) and restore the regulatory text defining the term “waters of the United States” as it existed prior to the 2015 Rule. This action is a prudent first step in the process by which the Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will reconsider the “waters of the United States” definition.
