Regulation

AAF Proposes Regulatory Reform That Promotes Economic Growth

WASHINGTON – In conjunction with The Atlantic’s event, Manufacturing’s Next Chapter, AAF Director of Regulatory Policy, Sam Batkins, outlines the regulatory burden on the manufacturing industry, how it directly impacts consumers, and explains the pressing need for regulatory reform to steer course to smarter regulation.

Regulatory Impact on Manufacturing

This week saw plenty of significant action across a number of fields on the regulatory front. From CFPB’s “Qualified Mortgage” standards, to Affordable Care Act regulations on the “individual mandate,” to EPA’s final rules on Boiler MACT, regulators added more than $1.1 billion in costs and 4.3 million hours of paperwork to the nation’s regulatory tally.

Regulatory Toplines

The recently published Unified Agenda of federal regulatory activity shows a total of 136 regulations that are “economically significant” – that is, those that will have an impact of $100 million or more.  

It is generally acknowledged that there is a shortage of skilled manufacturing workers in the United States, but estimates of the size of the shortage vary widely. At a time when unemployment in the United States remains stubbornly high, and while the U.S. manufacturing sector may be in the early stages of a renaissance, having a shortage of skilled workers is a serious challenge that needs to be addressed.

A unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia invalidating President Obama’s NLRB recess appointments highlighted a busy week.  This decision likely vitiates thirteen months of NLRB and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rulemakings because CFPB Director Richard Cordray also received an “unconstitutional” appointment.        

Today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a major blow to the Administration’s regulatory regime. In Noel Canning v. NLRB, a unanimous three-judge court found that President Obama’s purported “recess appointments” to the National Labor Relations Board were “constitutionally invalid.”

Over the course of just four days, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released three new regulations that account for 797 pages, $9.1 billion in new costs, and 10.6 million additional paperwork burden hours.

Breakdown

Medicaid, CHIP, and Exchanges: Eligibility and Enrollment

• Cost: $2.6 billion
• Paperwork: 518,432 burden hours
• Quantified Benefits: $0

Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption

The Chinese government’s failure to enforce intellectual property rights (IPR) has caused American companies to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in annual revenues and hundreds of thousands of domestic jobs.  A May 2011 study, China: Effects of Intellectual Property Infringement and Indigenous Innovation Policies on the U.S. Economy undertaken by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), reports that U.S. businesses lost $48 billion in sales, royalties and licensing fees due to IPR infringement in 2009.  The ITC survey, sent to over 5,000 U.S.

The week before President Obama’s second inauguration provided plenty of regulatory activity, ending the so-called “midnight” period (after Election Day and before Inauguration Day).  The total tally for proposed and final rules this week: more than $7 billion with 10.1 million associated paperwork burden hours.       

Regulatory Toplines

While "innovation" is a critical component of any nation's continuing economic success, it can also be used as a "cover" for potentially trade restrictive domestic policies against foreign-invested enterprises ("FEIs"). In a June 16, 2012 op-ed ("Protectionism is Back") in The Wall Street Journal, Thomas J. Donahue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Dean C.