July 08, 2013
The Honorable Spencer T. Bachus, III
Chairman, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform & Antitrust Law
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
The Honorable Stephen Cohen
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform & Antitrust Law
Committee on the Judiciary
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Chairman Bachus and Ranking Member Cohen:
Re: H.R. 2122 – The Regulatory Accountability Act of 2013
Business Roundtable is pleased to have this opportunity to support H.R. 2122, the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2013.
Business Roundtable is an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $7.3 trillion in annual revenues and nearly 16 million employees. Our member companies comprise nearly a third of the total value of the U.S. stock market and invest more than $150 billion annually in research and development – equal to 61 percent of U.S. private R&D spending. Our companies pay $182 billion in dividends to shareholders and generate nearly $500 billion in sales for small and medium-sized businesses annually.
Business Roundtable’s members are subject to – and increasingly burdened by – a vast range of federal regulatory programs. As we explained in our report Achieving Smarter Regulation1 the solution is a smarter regulatory system that would engage regulated parties earlier in the process, improve the quality of information relied upon by federal agencies, and take better account of the cost of regulations.
The attached statement describes how H.R. 2122 (and its companion bill, S. 1029) would effectuate many of the elements of smarter regulation. The bill would help produce a regulatory system that promotes business investment, innovation, and job creation. We applaud this bipartisan legislation and urge the Subcommittee (and the full Committee) to act favorably on H.R. 2122 and for the House to pass it.
Sincerely,
Andrew Liveris
Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company
Chair, Select Committee on Smart Regulation, Business Roundtable
1 BRT, Achieving Smarter Regulation (Sept. 2011)