NFIB, Blanche Lincoln start targeting regulations

A key small-business advocate and a former Democratic senator are teaming up to fight regulations coming out of the Obama administration that they say are hampering economic growth.

Former Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Dan Danner, the chief executive of the National Federation of Independent Business, signaled Wednesday that taking some of the regulatory load off smaller companies would help in the current battle against high unemployment.

“The message that we’re trying to leave is that if we want to create more jobs and make the economy better, how do we somehow get this disproportionate burden of ever increasing new regulations off the backs of the people who create the jobs?” Danner said at an event launching his group’s Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations campaign.

At the Wednesday event, Lincoln, the campaign’s chairwoman, and Danner rarely delved into specifics about which regulations were particularly burdensome for small businesses. Instead, the pair said they wanted the small-business owners who faced those regulations to tell their own stories, and signaled that the campaign would largely avoid discussing congressional legislation.

“The objective here is not to rifleshot and pick out things that are onerous. Our objective here is to encourage the administration to take the opportunity now to look at the ways that you can interject things that will create more efficient and effective regulations,” said Lincoln.

In all, businesses in six states — Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia — have joined the campaign. 

Danner said those states were chosen because NFIB had strong memberships. But he also did not shoot down the notion that those six states’ potential key role in next year’s presidential race was an added bonus.

“If there are states where lots of people are paying attention, obviously that’s a good thing,” Danner said.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have also taken aim at government regulations, with the GOP conferences in both chambers including a measure that would give Congress the authority to vote on major new rules.

Congressional supporters of the so-called REINS Act, as well as the new NFIB initiative, have cited a recent Small Business Administration report estimating that government regulations deprive the U.S. economy of $1.75 trillion annually.

But a Congressional Research Service report from earlier this year cast some doubt on that figure, finding that estimating regulatory costs was “inherently difficult.”

On Wednesday, Lincoln, a former two-term senator, did not indicate any regret for backing the recent healthcare overhaul, a vote which preceded her overwhelming loss to Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) last November.

But she also appeared to suggest she would be open to taking a look at some of the regulations associated with the healthcare law, which have garnered some complaints from small businesses.

“We have to be willing to look as we make this journey in healthcare — not only what we’ve done that’s good, but the things that are not going to work,” Lincoln said. “And we’ve got to listen to the people that are out there implementing it and those that are using it.”