[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 42 (Thursday, March 13, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2428-H2431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       REDUCING REGULATORY BURDEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2013, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. 
Lankford) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, it is amazing when we get a chance to be 
able to talk about something simple: Can a company run its own 
business? That seems like a very straightforward statement. Of course a 
company can run its own business. But it is fascinating to me when we 
begin to go down the process of how many regulations and how many 
things a company has to do to fulfill Federal mandates, and it begs one 
simple question: Is Washington the boss of every company in America? Is 
Washington the boss of every family in America? Quite frankly, is 
Washington the boss of every employee in America? We don't work for 
ourselves anymore unless we are given permission by the Federal 
Government.
  Now lest someone think I may be carrying this overboard, tonight we 
want to have a little conversation on what is happening in our Nation 
right now, when we have a Nation that is so focused on how we can wrap 
around every business to decide what is best for the employees, what is 
best for the employer, and what is best for everyone around them.
  There are several Members here as well, and I want to yield to the 
gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), who has been an amazing Member of 
this House of Representatives in the work he has done, and he comes 
with this small business perspective. He knows how to grow a business. 
He grew a small business to a very large business that was very 
significant, even through all of the regulatory process.
  I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin).
  Mr. MULLIN. I thank Mr. James Lankford from Oklahoma. What a 
wonderful colleague you are. You are absolutely correct, and the only 
reason I stand in front of you today is truly the biggest threat I had 
as a business owner, from a gentleman who literally had the opportunity 
to have a very small company and see how the Lord can bless it and take 
it until now we employ over 120 people across the State of Oklahoma, 
when I woke up one day and realized that the biggest threat I have to 
my company is the Federal Government, that is a sad reality.
  You are absolutely correct. It is ridiculous to sit and think we have 
to ask Washington, D.C., for permission to be able to hire. They 
literally regulate who we can hire and how we can fire them. We don't 
ever want to fire an employee, but the truth is sometimes you have to 
move on. The relationship doesn't work, and yet you are told how you 
have to do that.
  As a business owner, we want to hire the best people and keep the 
best people. That is how we grow the company. But at the end of day 
when we have to constantly ask permission how we do our job, can we do 
our job this way, are we allowed to grow the company, are we allowed to 
complete it, what agencies do we have to go through just to get a 
permit to do something that needs to be accomplished, it gets out of 
hand. We woke up one day and we realized we were spending 40 cents out 
of every dollar that comes into our company to simply comply with a 
mandate or a regulation coming down from the government. Forty cents 
out of every dollar.
  I was questioned one time on an interview. They said, How is that 
possible? Aren't you including taxes?
  I said: No, this doesn't include taxes.
  The person said I don't believe what you are saying, and I challenge 
you.
  I told them, just walk the halls with me in my office, and you will 
go past a compliance office, you will go past a payroll department, 
which is strongly regulated. You will go by an H.R. department that is 
strongly regulated, and so on and so on. I said you will be shocked how 
much we spend on payroll just to meet those certain mandates and those 
regulations.
  It is literally laughable when you have people up here in Washington, 
D.C., get up and say they got a job package. If they were really that 
good at creating jobs, why didn't they do it before they got here? The 
truth is they don't know because if they did, the only thing they would 
have to do is start reining in the regulations. At the end of the day, 
is America the land of opportunity because right now if Washington, 
D.C., if the Federal Government continues to overregulate, the 
opportunities and the entrepreneurial spirit that exists in America is 
no longer going to exist.
  I would like to thank the gentleman for bringing this to our 
attention and taking the time and your time to say hey, enough is 
enough.
  Mr. LANKFORD. I thank the gentleman.
  As the husband of an amazing lady and a dad of two amazing two young 
daughters, I enjoyed the previous Special Order that happened here 
about Women's History Month. I, as a dad, want to see my daughters be 
able to succeed and have every single opportunity of every single other 
American, and so I would like to yield to my colleague from New York so 
she is able to enter some things into the Record.
  Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman for his 
beautiful words. Certainly the museum will not be achieved without 
like-minded men who support it.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include for the Record an op-
ed that Marsha Blackburn and I wrote called ``The Women You Don't Know 
Yet,'' and a beautiful, beautiful op-ed written by Renee Ellmers 
representing the great State of North Carolina called ``A National 
Museum For Women's History.''
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from New York?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. LANKFORD. I want to continue on this ongoing conversation. How do 
decisions get made in America?
  It is the assumption again that if you are a landowner or a farmer 
and rancher, you look around your farm and you look for what is best 
for your land and for your family, as well as for the families around 
you. No one takes better care of the land than farmers and ranchers all 
across America.
  But it is interesting, as you go across western Oklahoma, you will 
drive for miles and you will see barbwire fences. At the bottom of it, 
they will have a small, little ribbon all the way across it. People 
from outside the State might wonder what that is, but landowners know 
what it is. That is the Fish and Wildlife Service has stepped onto 
their private property and said that if you are going to have a fence 
there in that spot, you have to mark the bottom wire in case a lesser 
prairie chicken were to be in your area.
  So hundreds of miles of fences have now been marked. People have been 
hired or families have spent their precious time, instead of farming or 
ranching, instead tagging barbwire in case there is a lesser prairie 
chicken somewhere in the area, which I remind you, is not an endangered 
species. It is a species that is being discussed to possibly be 
threatened at some future point, but it is not listed as threatened. It 
is not listed as endangered. But millions of dollars have been spent on 
things like tagging barbwire fences and limiting roads.

                              {time}  2100

  Now, landowners have to go to the Fish and Wildlife Service and ask 
permission for how many head of cattle that they can have in a certain 
area, in case a lesser prairie chicken happens to be in the area.
  It is an interesting day that we have in America, that whether you 
are farming, ranching, running a plumbing company, or whether you are a 
contractor, it seems that Washington is the boss of us, and we make 
decisions based on that.
  I would like to be able to welcome in a colleague of mine from my 
same class, who has been a leader not only in his State legislature, 
but is now a leader here in this legislature, Mr. Alan Nunnelee. I 
would like to be able to invite him to be able to come and continue on 
this conversation.
  Mr. NUNNELEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Oklahoma 
for

[[Page H2429]]

his leadership in bringing focus to this important issue.
  The foundation for our country rests on the shoulders of ``we the 
people.'' Under our constitutional form of government, we the people 
are the boss, and Washington is the servant.
  Unfortunately, under this current administration, there is not a week 
that goes by without more evidence of out-of-control bureaucracies 
attempting to run local businesses through unnecessary rules and 
regulations.
  I could give many examples, but in the interest of time, I will just 
give one. Columbus Brick Company is located in Columbus, Mississippi. 
They have been making clay bricks since 1890. Mr. Al Puckett is the 
fourth generation of that family to run that business.
  After they spent substantial sums much money to bring the factory 
into compliance with new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, 
the EPA is now threatening new, even more expensive regulations without 
any input from the public, from the stakeholders, from Congress, or 
from we the people.
  Last June, Mr. Puckett appeared before the House Judiciary Committee. 
He testified:

       If EPA uses the same approach that they have followed on 
     recent rules, Columbus Brick may cease to exist after almost 
     125 years of operation. I expect a minimum of having to shut 
     down 2 or 3 kilns. That will mean a permanent job loss of 45 
     to 50 families in our small rural community.

  Sadly, Mr. Speaker, it gets worse. These EPA regulations do not 
result in any significant benefit to the environment. The brick 
industry in general--Columbus Brick Company in particular--is already 
operating well within safe levels. Unfortunately, Columbus Brick 
Company is not unique in the impact this rule would have on small 
businesses. Many would be forced to close their doors.
  Only in Washington are rules handed down to businesses without 
allowing the affected parties the ability to weigh in before the 
settlement agreements are adopted. Environmental regulations should be 
fair, reasonable, and they should balance costs versus benefits.
  This body understands this concept, and that is why, in February, we 
passed the ALERRT Act, which would require the administration to 
account for the cost of excessive regulations to minimize the impact on 
small businesses.
  Mr. Puckett stated it best:

       We are not asking for the rule to go away. We are asking 
     that the practice of establishing unreasonable deadlines 
     without input from the impacted industries go away.

  Mr. Speaker, Mississippians know that the power and drive of America 
is in the individual, and the great solutions to the great challenges 
facing our country don't come in Washington, neither do they come in 
our State capitals. The challenges to our solutions can be found around 
our kitchen tables and our homes and our churches and our communities.
  Unfortunately, it is the mentality that the government is the boss. 
It has been oppressive on companies like Columbus Brick, but their 
spirit of survival is what has allowed them to survive for several 
generations. Washington, and particularly not the EPA, is not the boss 
of Columbus Brick.
  Mr. LANKFORD. I thank the gentleman for Mississippi for being here 
and being part of this conversation because this does affect every 
single corner of our Nation.
  Everywhere we go, this tends to be the same issue repeated over and 
over again. How do individuals make decisions and not have to wait for 
the Federal Government to be able to give them permission to be able to 
do this?
  We could go on and on, but let me just give you several other 
examples that some people may know well and some people may not know 
well.
  If you are going to put in a traffic light, just a simple 
installation, maybe a day or two at an intersection, to be able to put 
in a traffic light at an intersection, somewhere in the vicinity of 
that, there will be a board that has been placed up by the company.
  There will be 24 different posters stapled to that board to give 
instructions to anyone who happens to be at that job site installing a 
traffic light for a day or two of all of their rights under the 
Department of Labor rules--24 posters posted outside somewhere in the 
vicinity around where they are doing construction on a traffic light.
  Does anyone think that is common sense? I would assume not; but yet 
it is all over the country. Every company that is installing traffic 
lights or working on roads or bridges or anywhere they may be, they are 
hauling around this giant board and putting it up because the Federal 
Government makes them do it. As they install it, they all think the 
same thing. Do I work for the government, or does the government work 
for me?
  Many banks in America now, after the Dodd-Frank regulations were 
passed just 5 years ago, when those regulations were passed--or that 
law was passed and the regulations are now promulgated, banks will tell 
you, all over the country--small banks, family-owned banks in small 
rural communities, medium-sized banks, banks that had nothing to do 
with the meltdown that happened in our economy in 2008 and 2009--these 
community banks will tell you many of them have a regulator sitting 
there full time now.

  If not full time, multiple times a year, for weeks on end, a 
government regulator comes and sits down at their bank and goes through 
every single piece of everything.
  Many of these banks will tell you, if they call one of these 
regulators and say: Hey, I am thinking about making a loan, and I am 
considering this, I need to know, when you evaluate my bank, what are 
you going to say on this, many of the regulators will say: Well, I will 
evaluate it when I see it.
  They won't give them proactive advice. They won't actually help them 
in advance, but they will show up at the end of it and be able to 
downgrade them if they made the wrong decision.
  That is not a government that is designed to serve you. That is a 
government that we serve. Banks have suddenly become entities of the 
Federal Government, constantly worried about some Federal regulator 
coming in and what they may or may not do. Again, Washington is not our 
boss.
  The overtime rules that were just proposed today by the President, it 
seems like a such a nice thing to do. If someone works overtime, they 
should get additional pay, but leaving out this simple fact: people all 
over America worked hourly and worked to get to a salaried position, so 
then they saw that as a promotion.
  Suddenly, the President of the United States is stepping in and 
saying: I am going to actually demote you again and put you back on an 
hourly-type situation, that if you make a certain amount, you are going 
to have to count your hours.
  Well, what really happens in real life with that? Well, I can tell 
you immediately after that rule gets promulgated, Pam Parks, who owns 
Blue Wave and Silver Wave Boats in Seminole, Oklahoma, contacts me 
immediately and says: Does the President have any idea what this would 
mean in real life in a real business?
  I can tell Pam probably not because what it will mean in real life 
for her, what it will mean in real life for her employees, what it will 
mean in real life for companies all over America are multiple things, 
that when the President in Washington shows up at a business and says 
it is obvious you don't take care of your employees, so we are going to 
force you to do this, and we are going to take over your business, and 
we are going to run your payroll different than how you are running it, 
what really happens is salaried workers suddenly step back down to 
hourly workers, and someone who really wants to succeed and is going to 
put in the time to do that, the boss has to step in to them onsite and 
say: you can't work more than 40 hours. I know you wanted to be here 
and to do extra stuff and try to work your way up the ladder. No, you 
can't do that; because at a certain pay level, there is a cut off 
there, and you have to have extra overtime.
  Now, someone who may make a little bit more, they can stay extra, 
they can work their way up the ladder, but someone else now will be 
prohibited from doing that.
  As odd as it sounds, what just occurred was the President just 
imposed a new ceiling in workplaces all over the country with no one 
passing a law, with no regulation being promulgated, just a 
declaration, and everything just changed for a lot of Americans all 
over

[[Page H2430]]

the country, and a new cap was just placed in a lot of places.
  People that worked for years to move to salary just got demoted back 
to hourly, and now, their boss is watching over them. Sadly, that boss 
is Washington, D.C. That is not right for Blue Wave and Silver Wave 
Boats in Seminole, Oklahoma. That is not right for businesses all over 
America.
  If I get into an issue that is somewhat controversial, excuse me, but 
let me count the ways that ObamaCare demonstrates that Washington, 
D.C., wants to be the boss of every business and of every American.
  ObamaCare, when it passed, said to every American: I know that you 
plan your budget and you plan your life in certain ways. We don't like 
how you do that. You are suddenly going to do it our way. You are going 
to buy a product you haven't purchased before, whether you are healthy 
or not, because we want you to, because we are your boss and we are 
going to tell you what products you are going to buy. If you want to 
buy a different insurance policy, I am sorry. That insurance policy is 
not good enough for us in Washington. You have got to pick the one that 
we pick in Washington.
  That is not American. Now, it is a great thing to make sure that 
everyone in America has access to health care, but to then go to every 
family and say: It is going to be more than just access to, it is going 
to be requirement for, whether it fits your budget or not, and by the 
way, the government is going to pick what fits your budget.
  That means Washington is suddenly the boss of you. In every workplace 
across the country, Washington, D.C., is now trying to decide which 
insurance policies work best for them--that is, Washington, not for the 
people in that company. Washington is not the boss of us. We are 
individuals that have freedom.
  There is a company named Hobby Lobby. It happens to be based in my 
hometown. It is an absolutely amazing family that has lived out their 
faith for years. People see Hobby Lobby as this giant company.
  Just a few decades ago, Hobby Lobby was in a garage and was a couple 
of sons cutting out picture frames for their dad, and they were selling 
these little tiny picture frames and starting their own tiny little 
frame shop.
  That tiny little frame shop is now all over this country and is known 
to be this great retailer Hobby Lobby. They have practiced faith 
principles from the very beginning of their company. They close on 
Sundays. They close early on Wednesdays. They pay well more than 
minimum wage. They have always had great health care coverage.
  They are a company that lives out biblical values in the workplace. 
They play Christian music even over the loudspeakers at the stores. 
They are a place that, when you shop, you enjoy shopping there. People 
love to take care of people there. That is part of their corporate 
mentality.
  It is also a couple of owners and that family that is also opposed to 
abortion. They have the unusual belief that millions and millions of 
other Americans believe that children are valuable and that children 
are important and precious. They happen to have a faith that believes 
that the child deserves life.
  Well, the President disagrees with that faith; so when ObamaCare--
literally, the regulations say to that business: You cannot operate 
your business under faith principles if that faith principle is 
different than the President's.
  Why do I say that? Because if Hobby Lobby did not provide insurance 
at all--at all to their employees, they would be fined $2,000 per 
person, per year, if they refuse to provide insurance.
  If they provide all insurance with everything included in it that 
ObamaCare requires, except for four abortifacient drugs--just leave out 
those four. Based on religious views they don't agree with, those four 
abortifacient drugs--if they don't provide those four, their fine is 
$36,500 per employee, per year.
  Let me run this past you again: $2,000 per employee if they provide 
nothing; $36,500 per employee if they provide everything, except those 
four abortifacient drugs.
  How serious is this administration about being the boss of that 
company and telling them: If your faith practice is different than 
ours, it is obvious the consequences are shutting down a company?

                              {time}  2115

  No one can afford a fine of $36,500. So, basically, the Green family 
has to choose to either live their faith or to keep their business 
open, but they can't do both at the same time.
  What kind of country is this? What have we become when the simple 
freedom of religion can be swept aside by a Washington that says: If I 
don't agree with your faith, you have to change your practice?
  Washington is not the boss of our companies. Washington is not the 
boss of our faith. We have a constitutional right to be able to live 
out our faith.
  I received a letter and information from a great Oklahoma company in 
Stillwater, Oklahoma. It is Frontier Electronic Systems. It is 
interesting to be able to read what they are dealing with day-to-day 
just with Federal regulations. Here is one statement.
  They wrote:

       A phrase I have borrowed regarding most of these Federal 
     regulations is that they ``do not scale.'' As a company with 
     113 employees, we are as accountable for compliance as if we 
     had 113,000 employees. Needless to say, we have far fewer 
     resources available--dollars and people power--than a larger 
     employer has to ensure compliance. Also, compliance with many 
     of the regulations requires some level of knowledge and 
     experience in specific human resources specialties--staffing, 
     benefits, et cetera--due to the fact that many of the laws 
     are complicated and interrelated. Many smaller companies are 
     fortunate to have even one experienced HR professional, let 
     alone one that has extensive knowledge in multiple HR 
     specialties.

  What are they talking about with that?
  Let me just give you an example. Because this great company also 
occasionally does some Federal contracting, here is the list of the 
regulations that this company must fulfill. To be a company and to be 
open in America right now, this is what this particular company has to 
fulfill. They have to follow these specific regulations:
  The Age Discrimination in Employment Act; the American Recovery and 
Reinvestment Act of 2009--the regs that are in there; the American 
Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012; the Americans with Disabilities Act; the 
Black Lung Benefits Act; the Children's Health Insurance Program 
Reauthorization Act of 2009; the Consolidated Omnibus Budget 
Reconciliation Act of 1986; the Copeland Act of 1934; the Consumer 
Credit Protection Act; the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards 
Act; the Davis-Bacon Act; the Dodd-Frank Act of 2011; the Drug-Free 
Workplace Act of 1988; the Employee Polygraph Protection Act; the 
Employee Retirement Income Security Act; the Energy Employees 
Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act; the Equal Pay Act; 
Executive Order 11246 of 1965; Executive Order 13201; the Fair and 
Accurate Credit Transactions Act; the Federal Corrupt Practices Act; 
the Fair Credit Reporting Act; the Fair Labor Standards Act; the Family 
and Medical Leave Act; the Federal Employees' Compensation Act; the 
Federal Insurance Contributions Act; the Federal Mine Safety and Health 
Act; the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; the Health Care and 
Education Reconciliation Act; the Health Insurance Portability and 
Accountability Act; the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act of 
2010; the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986; the Immigration 
and Nationality Act; the Jury Service and Selection Act; the Labor-
Management Reporting and Disclosure Act; the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay 
Act of 2007; the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act; the 
McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act; the Mental Health and Addiction 
Equity Act of 2008; the Mental Health Parity Act; the Migrant and 
Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act; the National Labor 
Relations Act; the Newborns' and Mothers' Health Protection Act of 
1996; the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932; the Occupational Safety and 
Health Act; the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard; the Patient 
Protection and Affordable Care Act--that is a big one; that is 
ObamaCare--the Pension Protection Act of 2006; the Pregnancy 
Discrimination Act; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; the Sarbanes-Oxley 
Act; the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890; title VII of the Civil Rights 
Act of 1964; the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures of 
1978; the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment

[[Page H2431]]

Rights Act of 1994; the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004; the 
Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act; the Walsh-Healey 
Act; the War Hazards Compensation Act; the Women's Health and Cancer 
Rights Act of 1998; the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification 
Act; and the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act.
  Can anyone keep up with that? This business has to. With 113 
employees, how many people does it take just to keep up with those 
regulations?
  Mr. Speaker, we have a problem. We have a Washington, D.C., that has 
become arrogant. I don't think it is intentional. Quite frankly, I 
think everyone is trying to be very kind--overly kind--and they stack 
on one regulation on another, and there suddenly becomes a day when no 
company can keep up with this.
  The attitude is simple: we know better than you. You won't run your 
company like it should be run, so we are going to come tell you how to 
run it. You won't run your family like it should be run, so we are 
going to tell you how to run your family farm. You won't run your bank 
like it should be run, so we are going to come run it for you. You 
won't run your insurance company like it should be run, so we are going 
to come run it for you. You mistreat your employees, so we are going to 
take over your health care system, and we will run it for you.
  Mr. Speaker, that is not what we are as Americans. We are a nation 
that became strong because we are a nation that is free. We changed the 
world with a simple work ethic and the ability for people to be able to 
achieve success. That did not include a laundry list of protections 
from the Federal Government that swallow up a business.
  Is there anything wrong with the government's setting the boundaries 
for business? No. It is part of the role of government. But when it 
becomes this, we are drowning. Now, suddenly, Washington is the boss of 
us, and this has got to turn around.
  Mr. Speaker, simple decisions have to be made.
  Can States do things that the Federal Government is currently doing?
  Yes, there are things the Federal Government is doing it has no 
business doing. They are the responsibility of a State.
  Should families go back to making decisions and businesses making 
decisions?
  Yes, they should. That means there is risk. With risk comes great 
reward. We became the strongest and most prosperous nation on the 
planet because our people were not afraid of risk and the rest of the 
world was. We can get back to that, but we have got to make a simple 
decision: Is Washington the boss of us or are the American people the 
boss of Washington?
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________