About Amit Narang

Amit Narang is the Regulatory Policy Advocate for Congress Watch.

Posts by Amit Narang:

Chamber Lobbyist Falls Through the Looking Glass at House Subcommittee Hearing

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Today’s House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee hearing provided a strange, “through-the-looking-glass” moment when William Kovacs, a top lobbyist for the U.S Chamber of Commerce, blurted out the current regulatory process is too slow, and implored the members to speed things up to permit new construction projects. He complained the process takes far too long and is “harming our ability to grow our economy.”

Surprising commentary because Kovacs and the Chamber have been spearheading a radical, anti-regulatory agenda pushing lawmakers to slow or shut down entirely the government’s ability to put forth critical protections for the American public.

Kovacs’ testimony is a model of self-contradiction. On the one hand, he encourages agencies to dispense with burdensome environmental reviews that agencies must conduct by law when authorizing permits for new construction projects. He goes so far as to suggest the creation of a special regulatory body called the “Office of Permit Efficiency” which would help expedite the permitting process.

However, on the other hand he had a field day lambasting agencies for producing what he thinks are cursory and inadequate assessments of a regulation’s cost to the economy. For example, Kovacs would like to see agencies include “indirect” impacts of their regulations on small businesses when they conduct economic impact assessments. More

“Evils of Regulation” is the Wrong Answer to a Trick Question

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Here’s a trick question: What has caused our economy to lose over 8 million jobs in the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression? If you answered “the unprecedented economic crisis caused by our financial industry’s long campaign to escape government regulation,” well, you’d be wrong.

Wrong at least according to the majority members of numerous House Committees which have convened hearings in recent weeks solely focused on the supposed evils of regulation.  In hearing after hearing, members of the majority have resorted to misrepresentation and misinformation in singling out public enemy number one when it comes to job creation: government regulation.

These hearings demonstrate a central Republican article of faith; any regulation, however sensible and necessary it may be to protect the public, will prevent businesses from hiring. The fallacy of this false choice between regulation and jobs is exposed by a recent study released by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The study, entitled “A Lifesaver, Not a Job Killer,” counters the accusation that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed national emissions standards for mercury, arsenic, and other toxic air pollution, known as the “toxics rule,” would present a threat to job growth.

The study makes an important point that critics of regulation conveniently overlook, namely  regulation can spur creation of businesses and industries that do not currently exist.  It  contends that EPA’s rule to protect the public from toxic pollutants would attract investment and jobs to the environmental protection sector, resulting in a modest overall net increase in jobs. That’s quite a silver lining to a rule that would already lengthen lives, provide better health, and increase productivity by improving the quality of the air we breathe.

Not surprisingly, the benefits of regulation are given short shrift in House Committee hearings. Instead, these hearings demonstrate Republicans’ single-minded emphasis on the costs of regulation. Indeed, a House Committee hearing on regulation cannot be complete without at least one reference to a thoroughly discredited study which claims that the annual economic cost of all regulations total 1.75 trillion dollars. Even Cass Sunstein, the main witness of a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing and Obama’s top regulatory official, called the study “deeply flawed ” when asked to comment on it. More

Bye Bye Bayh: Don’t let the “revolving door” hit you on the way out.

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The US Chamber of Commerce’s announcement this morning that it would be sending former Senator Evan Bayh and former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card on a “road show” across the country to “carry a bipartisan message on regulatory reform” once again demonstrates that the Chamber is willing to sacrifice critical public protections in the interest of satiating their big business benefactors. Chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue dispelled any doubts about their desire to dismantle our country’s hard-fought system of public safeguards, stating in an internal memo that the Chamber’s anti-regulatory agenda is a “first among equals.” And the Chamber has enlisted the best salesmen it could find to do it.

Unfortunately, by selling out to the highest bidder, which is more often than not the Chamber of Commerce, Evan Bayh has lost credibility when it comes to talking about what’s best for our country. Once considered a principled messenger, Bayh is now giving the Chamber bipartisan cover for a radical, pro-corporate agenda with dangerous long-term consequences. Bayh and the Chamber would have you believe that they are just calling for “regulatory reform to restore balance and accountability to the rulemaking process.” In fact, the Chamber wants to make sure that agencies and enforcement authorities that were missing in action during the run-up to the BP oil spill fiasco, the Upper Big Branch mining disaster, and the financial crisis of 2008, remain hamstrung and on the sidelines. If you don’t believe me, just take a look at the Chamber’s internal memo, where President Donohue gloats that the Chamber has helped delay or stop rules which:

  • require that companies disclose the use of so-called “conflict minerals” from the Congo in the products they make or distribute.
  • allow shareholders to have greater control in nominating directors and management leadership.
  • address environmental pollution by reducing ozone, coal ash, and boiler emissions.

It’s too late to stop Senator Bayh from taking this job, but it’s not too late to prevent Bayh and the Chamber from undoing our precious public protections. Public Citizen urges you to take action: call your elected officials and hold them accountable whenever they endanger essential regulations under the guise of “regulatory reform.”