Is rulemaking by agencies adding more red tape? The newly elected Republican majority in the House has gotten off to a running start in seeking to lighten burdensome regulations that they say choke investment and destroy jobs.

• Author: Barlas, Stephen
• Position: Regulation

During the first few months of the 112th Congress, newly-empowered House Republicans and their increased numbers in the Senate have been after what they perceive as overactive federal regulators. House committee chairmen have chased, administrators and chairmen of regulatory agencies up to Capitol Hill oversight hearings over what they deem as excesses of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and health care reform rulemaking, plus agency administration actions in the area of greenhouse gas emissions (CHG) and Internet access rules of the road.

The House Energy & Commerce Committee and the Financial Services Committee have focused their first hearings on business complaints about the Obama administration's regulatory agenda. In addition, the House Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.)--regarded as one of the most influential committees on Capitol Hill--is planning a broad review of all federal agencies with an eye toward making significant budget and spending cuts, including those agencies charged with financial regulation.

"I have tasked our committee members to track down burdensome regulations that choke investment and destroy jobs," says Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), House Energy & Commerce chair. "We will identify these regulations, shine a light on them and then seek repeal."

Upton started to make good on that promise when his committee passed the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011 on March 15. It prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating GHGs under the Clean Air Act.

Complaints about regulatory overreaching, expressed strongly by business groups of all stripes, have apparently prompted President Barack Obama to issue an executive order in January requiring federal agencies to examine rules now on the books, whose costs may exceed their benefits. The administration wants to reduce duplication and programs that do not bring real value to regulatory oversight. But the executive order won't affect the major rules going into effect this year, with which business groups express greatest concern.

"The president's executive order ... will not affect regulations being written to implement health care reform or financial reform, arguably the two largest sources of regulatory uncertainty in the current economy," says Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Ala), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee." So, he adds, "it is hard not to conclude that this latest initiative is more about politics than real regulatory reform."

For corporate financial executives, regulations growing out of the Dodd-Frank Act pose the biggest threat, while the president regards Dodd-Frank as the key to insulating the nation...